Traders await release of data on U.S. petroleum inventories, FOMC minutes By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Oil prices traded flat on Tuesday after finishing at the highest level since October 2008 in the previous session, as traders awaited data on petroleum inventories and the minutes from the latest meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Crude oil for May delivery gained 1 cent to $86.63 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. It earlier hit an intraday high of $86.85 a barrel. "We think that the oil-price increase is only of temporary nature, since it is driven by liquidity rather than by fundamental factors," said analysts at Commerzbank AG. "The recent increase in correlation between oil prices and equity markets, which has now reached unprecedentedly high levels, underscores our view," they wrote in a note to clients. Crude futures rose 2% on Monday to end at $86.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, their highest closing level since October 2008. The American Petroleum Institute will report data on U.S. petroleum inventories on Tuesday afternoon. The Energy Information Administration will release a separate report on supplies on Wednesday morning. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires project an increase of 1.2 million barrels in crude inventories for the week ended April 2. U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly lower opening on Tuesday after markets rose to multi-month highs in the prior session. Traders are awaiting the release of the minutes from the March 16 meeting of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee. They are due at 2 p.m. Eastern. The dollar rose against its major rivals, limiting gains in energy prices. The dollar index (DXY 81.40, +0.30, +0.37%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, rose 0.4% to 81.392.

Source