A quiet day in terms of economic news propelled crude oil and other risk assets higher in the prior session. With U.S. jobless claims numbers and crude oil inventory data out on Thursday, will the rally continue? The API survey was decidedly bullish, largely due to Hurricane Alex and its impact on production and tanker loadings last week. Commodities - Energy Crude Oil Up on API Data Crude Oil (WTI) $74.75 +$0.68 +0.92% Crude oil rose 2.9% on Wednesday amid improving sentiment among traders. Risk assets across the board rallied; the S&P 500 stock index rose 3.1%. There was no particular news to spark the advance. Instead, the lack of news itself enabled bargain hunters to push up prices early in the day, and the combination of momentum and selling exhaustion enabled prices to drift higher throughout the day. This is contrast to yesterday when a weak ISM Services Index squashed the attempted early morning rally. With bulls taking a stand at these levels, the burden of proof is on the bears. Economic data, which has been consistently disappointing recently, has to continue to deteriorate. Otherwise, some will argue that a mere slowdown has already been priced in, and that anything less than a double dip is grounds for a gradual rise in risk assets, or grounds for a period of consolidation at the very least. Currently, crude oil prices are continuing higher after bullish API survey figures were released (Crude -7260K, Gasoline -191K, Distillates -1021K). The crude draw is probably due to Hurricane Alex, which was responsible for shutting-in nearly 400,000 barrels per day of output last week. It is likely that the storm caused a delay in the offloading of oil from tankers as well. Key technical levels remain the same: support at $69.50, resistance at $75.50.

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