BZ:Crude oil hits 2-day high on easing concerns over U.S. demand
Forex Pros – Crude oil futures climbed to a two-day high on Wednesday, after industry data showed that U.S. crude supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma declined the most since June last week, easing concerns over slowing demand in the world’s largest crude consumer.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June traded at USD98.89 a barrel during European morning trade, jumping 1.53%.
It earlier rose by as much as 1.83% to USD99.22 a barrel, the highest price since May 16.
Data released by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday showed that U.S. crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the benchmark West Texas Intermediate grade, fell by 1.5 million barrels last week, the largest decline since late June.
The U.S. Energy Department was to release its closely-watched crude oil inventories report for the week ended May 13 later in the day.
The data was expected to show that U.S. crude oil stockpiles increased by 1.5 million barrels, while gasoline supplies were forecast to rise by 1 million barrels.
Meanwhile, weakness in the dollar had also contributed to oil’s strength. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.18% to hit 75.35.
Dollar-denominated oil futures contracts tend to rise when the dollar falls, as this makes oil cheaper for buyers in other currencies.
Elsewhere, lingering supply concerns stemming from geopolitical turmoil in Libya continued to support prices. Chairman of Libya's National Oil Company Shokri Ghanem defected from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and fled to neighboring Tunisia, a Tunisian security source said earlier Wednesday.
Libya is a net exporter of crude oil and normally sells around 1.3 million barrels per day to world markets.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for July delivery climbed 0.91% to trade at USD111.22 a barrel, up USD12.33 on its U.S. counterpart.
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