By Claudia Assis and Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures rebounded Wednesday as a report on private-sector payroll revived hopes for the embattled U.S. job market and after a trade group reported a sharp drop in weekly oil inventories.
Crude-oil for November delivery CL1X +3.49% advanced $1.72, or 2.3%, to $77.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Crude-oil futures fell 2.5% on Tuesday.
Prices extended gains booked in Asian and European trading after Automatic Data Processing said private-sector payrolls increased 91,000 in September, compared to 89,000 in August.
Economists had expected a gain around 75,000 for September. The ADP report comes ahead of the Labor Department’s employment report due Friday, which includes private- and public-sector payrolls. Read more on ADP.
Investors also waited for the Energy Information Administration’s weekly supply report Wednesday.
The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday crude-oil supplies fell by 3.1 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 30.
The data came ahead of the more closely watched EIA report. A Platts survey of analysts forecast a rise of 2.5 million barrels in crude stocks.
Oil finished below $76 a barrel for the first time in more than a year in regular New York trading Tuesday, pressured by worries about Europe’s debt crisis and the outlook for U.S. economic growth. See report on Tuesday’s crude-oil moves.
“Oil prices remain under the sway of macroeconomic sentiment,” said strategists at Barclays Capital.
