Oil inches up on inventories data
Published Apr 24, 2013 08:43PM ET
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for June delivery nudged higher by 0.07% to USD91.50 per barrel in Asian trading Thursday after settling up 2.07% at USD91.03 a barrel on Wednesday in the U.S.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 947,000 barrels last week, well below market calls for a gain of 1.513 million barrels, which sparked a rally in energy markets.
Oil inventories fell by 1.233 million barrels during the week before last. Gasoline inventories, meanwhile, fell by 3.928 million barrels compared with a decline of 633,000 barrels in the preceding week. Analysts were expecting U.S. gasoline inventories to fall 175,000.
The inventories data helped traders overlook some concerning economic data. In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department said durable goods orders fell 5.7% last month following a 4.3% increase in February. Orders excluding non-defense aircraft rose 0.2% missing economists’ expectations for 0.4% increase. Shipments of core capital goods rose 0.3% in March, but the February reading was revised lower to an increase of 1.2% from an initial reading of 1.9%.
In Europe, the Ifo index of German business climate fell to a four-month low of 104.4 in April from 106.7 in March. Analysts had expected the index to tick down to 106.2.
Germany is the euro zone’s largest economy and the week Ifo index reading prompted speculation that the European Central Bank could lower interest rates at its next monetary policy meeting on May 2.
Meanwhile, Brent futures for June delivery inched lower by 0.01% to USD101.83 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.
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Written By: Investing.com
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