By Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — U.S. benchmark crude-oil futures ticked higher in electronic trade Wednesday after an inventory report showed a rise in supplies.
New York Mercantile Exchange crude for June delivery CLM2 +0.27% tacked on 11 cents, or 0.1%, to trade at $103.66 during Asian trading hours, with the gains following the contract’s highest settlement in a week.
After the close of New York trade Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said crude-oil supplies fell by 985,000 barrels for the week ended April 20, although gasoline and distillate inventories each fell by 3.6 million barrels. See report on API supply data.
The May gasoline future RBK2 -0.01% saw little movement after the data, slipping less than a cent to hold steady at $3.16 a gallon.
Heating-oil for May HOK2 +0.28% added a cent, or 0.3%, to $3.14 a gallon, while May natural gas NGK12 +0.05% also added a penny for a 0.3% rise to $1.98 per million British thermal units.
The more closely watched U.S. Energy Information Administration report is due out Wednesday morning. A Platts poll of analysts expects a rise of 1.5 million barrels in crude stockpiles, an increase of 80,000 barrels in distillate supplies, and a fall of 500,000 barrels for gasoline stocks.
Longer-term, Citi analysts said market sentiment toward crude and the wider petroleum market was “robustly bullish.”
“Our base case assumptions for the second half of the year include both stronger seasonal demand and lower [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] production,” they said.
“This would be consistent with either a scenario where Iranian production declines moderately, or one where Iranian production stabilizes but other OPEC production is reduced to help limit a drop in price on an easing of tensions,” Citi said.
Michael Kitchen is Asia editor for MarketWatch and is based in Los Angeles.
