MW: Crude futures rise above $73/bbl ahead of supply data
American Petroleum Institute will release a report on inventories this afternoon
By Polya Lesova and Nick Godt, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures rose above $73 a barrel on Wednesday, as investors anticipated that inventory reports in the next two days would show a drop in supplies.
A report that $100 billion in capital spending from China will be targeted at energy intensive projects also provided support, according to PFG Best.
Crude oil for August delivery gained $1.54, or 2.2%, to $73.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract earlier hit an intraday high of $74.01 a barrel.
"The energy market is struggling for some direction," given global economic uncertainty and nervous trading conditions, said analysts at Sucden Financial in a note.
"Investors are likely to remain cautious and wait for clarification from the global equity markets and currency movements," they said. "The inventories report later today could provide some light in the short term."
The American Petroleum Institute will report supply data at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its inventories report on Thursday morning. Both reports are delayed one day because of the Fourth of July holiday.
Analysts polled by Platts expect the data to show a 3.5-million-barrel decline in U.S. commercial crude oil stocks for the week ended July 2.
They also project an increase of 1.3 million barrels in gasoline stocks and a build-up of 1.9 million barrels in distillate stocks.
Refinery utilization, or the run rate, is expected to be unchanged at 88.4%.
On the natural gas front, however, prices were heading in the opposite direction Wednesday. Natural gas for August delivery fell 7.6 cents, or 1.6%, to $4.606 per million British thermal units. The contract hit an intraday low of $4.567 per Btu.
The EIA will also report natural gas storage on Thursday. Analysts surveyed by Platts estimate a net injection of 70 billion to 74 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage for the week ending July 2.
