Oil futures rose above $50 a barrel early Thursday, as a smaller-than-expected increase in crude inventories and an early release of profits from Wells Fargo boosted investor sentiment.
Crude oil for May delivery rose $1.41, or 2.9%, to $50.79 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.
Earlier, the contract climbed to an intraday high of $51.46 a barrel.
"The proximity of this psychologically important level [$50 a barrel], rising equity markets and a smaller-than-feared increase in U.S. oil inventories have given the [oil] price a boost," said analysts at Commerzbank.
The U.S. government reported Wednesday that crude inventories rose 1.7 million barrels in the week ended April 3, less than analysts expected.
Inventories at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for oil futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, fell for a third-straight week to 30 million barrels.
On Wall Street, U.S. stock futures rose Thursday ahead of a three-day weekend, as an early release of profits from Wells Fargo added to the optimism around the financial sector.
Wells Fargo said Thursday it expects to report record profits for the first quarter of roughly $3 billion, or 55 cents a share. The projected numbers are after preferred dividends, including $372 million in dividends paid to the U.S. government, are taken into account. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research are expecting, on average, profits of 31 cents a share.
Also on Globex, May-reformulated gasoline rose 4 cents to $1.47 a gallon and May heating oil gained 2 cents to $1.42 a gallon.
May natural-gas futures rose 3 cents to $3.66 per million British thermal units.
