By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures rose to a 12-week high on Tuesday, using the previous session’s steep gains as a springboard for further advances even in the face of broad market weakness.
Crude for December delivery CL1Z +2.98% added $2.20, or 2.4%, to $93.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose as high as $94.65 a barrel just ahead of the start of U.S. floor trading.
Oil on Tuesday closed at its best since early August, and the close, above $91 a barrel, was serving as a technical launching pad for Wednesday’s gains.
Crude “has also been on fire, building on yesterday’s breakout,” analysts at CMC Markets said in a note to clients.
Markets have been optimistic that Europe will be able to stave off its sovereign-debt crisis with last weekend’s summit and the next gathering scheduled for Wednesday.
That confidence, however, was dented after news euro-zone finance ministers won’t meet as expected, even though their top leaders will still meet.
The gathering is hoped to be one of the final chapters of Europe’s debt saga, but markets took the absence of the finance ministers hard, with U.S. stocks opening sharply lower. Read more on U.S. stocks.
That latest twist is being taken as a sign that key details in the much-expected sweeping plan to stop the crisis have not been agreed upon.
Markets will get their first glimpse of recent oil fundamentals later Tuesday, with the American Petroleum Institute reporting its weekly inventories data. More closely followed government data is scheduled for Wednesday.
Analysts polled by Platts expect crude-oil inventories up 200,000 barrels, but gasoline stocks down 1.25 million barrels and distillates stockpiles down 1.5 million barrels.
Last week, investors cheered an unexpected drop in inventories, although ultimately oil closed lower last Wednesday.
Meanwhile, energy products traded lower. Gasoline for November delivery RB1Z -1.48% retreated 5 cents, or 1.8%, to $2.64 a gallon. November heating oil HO1Z -0.60% declined 2 cents, or 0.8%, to $3.03 a gallon.
Earlier Wednesday, traders sorted out news consumer confidence was at its weakest since March 2009.
