MW: Oil adds to gains, rising further above $100 level
May crude is up 79 cents, or 0.8%, to $101.05 a barrel
By Victor Reklaitis, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Oil prices lifted further above the $100 a barrel mark on Thursday, with analysts tying the gains to a continued drop in crude supplies at the key U.S. hub in Cushing, Okla.
May crude CLK4 +1.10% was last up 79 cents, or 0.8%, to $101.05 a barrel.
On Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration said U.S. oil stockpiles rose 6.6 million barrels for the week ended March 21, well above the increase expected by analysts. But stockpiles at Cushing, the delivery point for futures, dropped to continue a recent downward trend.
“The WTI price climbed above the $100 per barrel mark yesterday after the U.S. Department of Energy reported a renewed decline in Cushing stocks by 1.3 million barrels,” said Commerzbank analysts in a note on Thursday.
“Stocks at Cushing have meanwhile fallen in eight consecutive weeks.”
Oil futures jumped 1.1% on Wednesday, closing above the $100 level for the first time in roughly two weeks.
In U.S. economic news on Thursday, weekly jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 311,000. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected claims to total 320,000. In addition, the economy’s growth in the fourth quarter was raised to a 2.6% annual rate from 2.4%.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, Brent crude for May delivery UK:LCOK5 +1.55% gained 55 cents, or 0.5%, to $107.58 a barrel, while May natural gas NGJ14 -0.18% dipped a penny, or 0.3%, to $4.39 per million British thermal units.
Victor Reklaitis is a New York-based markets writer for MarketWatch. Follow him on Twitter @VicRek.
