Oil futures retained their modest gains on Wednesday after data showed that U.S. March consumer prices fell 0.1%. Crude oil for May delivery rose 35 cents to $49.76 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported an increase of 6.5 million barrels in crude-oil stocks for the week ended April 10. The Energy Information Administration will release its more closely watched data on petroleum inventories at 10:30 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by Platts expect U.S. crude inventories rose 2.5 million barrels in the week ended April 10. They also expect a decline of 960,000 barrels in gasoline stocks and a decline of 1.5 million barrels in distillates inventories.

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