Crude oil fell for a third day on speculation that a report tomorrow will show U.S. supplies increased as the recession holds down fuel demand. Stockpiles rose 1.25 million barrels last week, according to the median of 10 estimates by analysts in a Bloomberg News survey before the Energy Department report. U.S. stock futures and European equities dropped as financial and technology companies declined. “The equity markets are down, which leaves us to concentrate of the fundamentals of this market,” said Gene McGillian, an analyst and broker at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. “We still haven’t seen any evidence that the excess supply is being absorbed.” Crude oil for May delivery fell $1.36, or 2.7 percent, to $49.69 a barrel at 9:13 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has risen 11 percent this year and is down 66 percent from a record in July. Inventories climbed 2.84 million barrels to 359.4 million in the week ended March 27, the highest since July 1993, the department reported on April 1. The gain left supplies 13 percent higher than the five-year average for the period. Gasoline stockpiles probably dropped 1.5 million barrels from 216.8 million the prior week, according to the survey. Distillate fuels, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, probably fell 350,000 barrels from 144.2 million. Refineries probably operated at 81.7 percent of capacity, little changed from the week before, according to the median of responses in the survey. The Energy Department is scheduled to release its weekly report tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. in Washington. Brent crude oil for May settlement dropped 50 cents, or 1 percent, to $51.74 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. The Brent contract was more than $1.50 a barrel above Nymex’s May crude oil. The difference reached $1.19 yesterday, the most since Feb. 17. Brent oil is often priced at a discount to Nymex crude and traded lower for most of March.

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