By Claudia Assis and Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures added to losses Wednesday following a bearish inventories report that showed a surprise increase for crude supplies and above-estimate increases for crude products such as gasoline.
Crude for September delivery CLU2 -1.47% declined $1.19, or 1.4%, to $87.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Crude traded lower for most of the Asian session and regained some strength into European and early North American sessions. It relinquished gains, however, shortly before the inventories report as traders reacted to negative U.S. housing data.
The Energy Information Administration said crude supplies rose 2.7 million on the week ended July 20.
That contrasted with expectations of a decline around 250,000 barrels, according to analysts polled by Platts.
The EIA also reported gasoline stockpiles up 4.1 million barrels, and inventories of distillates up 1.7 million barrels.
The analysts surveyed by Platts had expected gasoline inventories down 750,000 barrels and distillates supplies up 1 million barrels.
Heating oil and gasoline also added to losses after the inventories report, with August gasoline RBQ2 -2.76% off 7 cents, or 2.5%, to $2.75 a gallon.
August heating oil HOQ2 -0.66% declined 2 cents, or 0.8%, to $2.80 a gallon.
Crude has traded sideways for the past two sessions, rising 0.4% on Tuesday on a relatively upbeat manufacturing report from China but with gains clipped by worries about Europe’s debt crisis. The same fears helped drive prices down 4% on Monday. Read more on Tuesday’s oil session.
Futures on Wednesday got mixed cues from two of its key influences.
U.S. stocks shed gains Wednesday after the U.S. Commerce Department said sales of new single-family homes fell 8.4% in June to a level that was short of forecasts.
The dollar was weaker, however, with the euro helped by comments by European Central Bank member Ewald Nowotny .
Nowotny was reported as saying there were arguments in favor of giving the European Union’s rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, a banking license. Such a license would enable the fund to borrow money from the European Central Bank, according to Bloomberg.
The dollar index DXY -0.35% fell to 83.752 from 84.009 in late North American trading Tuesday, when it reached the two-year high after a report Greece would require additional debt restructuring.
Meanwhile, August natural gas NGQ12 -3.29% was off 4 cents, or 1.1%, to $3.15 per million British thermal units.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
