MW: Oil futures edge up before U.S. inventory data
By Laura He, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Oil futures edged higher in electronic trade Friday as markets looked to U.S. crude-supply data due later in the day.
February crude oil CLG4 +0.13% gained 11 cents to $99.66 a barrel in electronic trading, after ending 33 cents higher in Thursday’s New York Mercantile Exchange session.
“Markets would closely watch the Energy Information Administration’s oil inventory report due later today for further cues,” ICICI bank analysts said in a note on Friday, referring to the U.S. government’s weekly data on the nation’s crude-oil stocks.Due to the Christmas holiday, the EIA report was delayed until 11 a.m. Eastern time on Friday. On Tuesday, numbers from the American Petroleum Institute showed a surprise rise of 500,000 barrels in crude oil storage for the week ended Dec. 20, though the EIA numbers are more closely watched by the market.
Analysts polled by Platts expect the EIA data to show a decline of 2.3 million barrels in crude-oil stocks, a rise of 1.2 million barrels in gasoline stocks and a drop of 500,000 barrels in distillate stocks.
In other trading, Brent crude for February delivery UK:LCOG4 -0.01% fell 13 cents, or 0.1%, to $111.85 a barrel.
January natural gas NGF14 -1.20% declined 3 cents, or 0.7%, to $4.41 per million British thermal units, and January gasoline RBF4 -0.32% lost 1 cent, or 0.2%, to $2.81 a gallon.
