By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures turned lower Wednesday ahead of government data on supplies, as stocks posted modest declines.
Crude for November delivery, the front-month contract, gained 12 cents, or 0.1%, to $76.06 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract fell 34 cents to end at $76.18 Tuesday.
After Tuesday’s close, the American Petroleum Institute reported that crude stockpiles declined by 2.4 million barrels last week.
The Energy Information Administration is scheduled to issue its more closely watched weekly report on petroleum inventories at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday.
Analysts polled by Platts expect crude inventories to rise 2.2 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 24, while gasoline stockpiles are seen adding 800,000 barrels and distillates increasing by 400,000 barrels.
Other energy products were seeing red Wednesday, with natural gas for November delivery (NGX10 3.92, -0.03, -0.68%) off a penny, or 0.3%, to $3.94 per million British thermal units.
Reformulated gasoline for November delivery (RBX10 1.94, +0.01, +0.32%) retreated 1 cent, or 0.5%, to $1.93 a gallon.
