Crude-oil futures rose more than 2% Tuesday to the highest level in six months, briefly topping $60 a barrel as data showed China's crude imports for April jumped nearly 14% from a year ago. Oil also got a boost from higher U.S. stock futures and a weaker dollar, which tends to push up dollar-denominated commodities prices such as gold and crude. The rally in oil came even after analysts expected another buildup in U.S. inventories. Crude for June delivery gained $1.39, or 2.3%, to $59.89 a barrel in early North American electronic trading. It rose to $60.08 earlier. Front-month oil contracts haven't ended above $59 a barrel since Nov. 11. "An oil price of $60 a barrel should further attract interest from financial investors," said analysts led by Barbara Lambrecht at Commerzbank, in a note. However, oil's recent rally "is overdone and [we] expect a correction during the coming days." Oil has surged 76% from its mid-February low below $34 a barrel. In the year to date, it has gained 34%. China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, increased its imports by 13.6% last month to 16.17 million metric tons, or 3.9 million barrels a day, the mainland's customs department said in an online statement Tuesday. On Wall Street, stock futures rose but came off earlier highs, as investors debated prospects for economic recovery. Meanwhile, the greenback weakened against most of its major rivals, with the dollar index down by 0.4% at 82.066. Pushing the dollar lower, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday the U.S. trade deficit - the difference between exports and imports - increased by 5.5% to $27.6 billion in March from $26.1 billion in February. The Energy Information Administration is scheduled to report on last week's petroleum stockpiles Wednesday morning. Analysts at energy information provider Platts expect inventories to have risen across the board: Crude is pegged to show an increase of 1.4 million barrels, with gasoline stockpiles seen gaining by 400,000 barrels, and distillates,which include diesel and heating oil, seen growing by 1 million barrels on the week. In its previous update, the EIA reported that crude inventories rose to more than 375 million barrels in the week ended May 1, the highest level since September 1990. Also in energy trading Tuesday, June-reformulated gasoline rose 1.88 cents, or 1.1%, to $1.699 a gallon, and June heating oil gained 3.42 cent, or 2.3%, to $1.5351 a gallon. Natural gas for June delivery added 16.7 cents, or 3.9%, to $4.469 per million British thermal units. The contract for natural gas rallied 21.6% last week.

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