By David Bird Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Crude oil futures prices were weaker Tuesday ahead of the release of data expected to show an increase in already high U.S. oil inventories. Light, sweet crude oil for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 92 cents at $83.28 a barrel, after moving in a range of $83.06 to $84.21 a barrel. Crude has held within a rough $5 range of around $80.50 to $85.63 a barrel in recent days, pulled by worries over high inventories and halting signs of economic recovery. ICE North Sea Brent crude for June was down 69 cents at $86.14 a barrel. Traders said strength in the dollar against the euro, which has been hit by continued concerns over a financial rescue package for Greece, helped spur early weakness. With oil priced in dollars, a rise in the U.S. currency makes the commodity less attractive to investors using other currencies. The market will be watching the 10 a.m. EDT release of U.S. consumer confidence data for signals on the economic outlook and awaits the two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting that begins Tuesday. The FOMC will issue a statement Wednesday that will be interpreted for clues on interest rate policy. U.S. oil inventory data for the week ended April 23 is expected to a show further stockbuilds. The American Petroleum Institute releases its data at 4:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday, while the Energy Information Administration's report is set for release at 10:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday. Crude-oil inventories are expected to rise by 300,000 barrels, according to analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. Forecasts range from a drop of 1 million barrels to an increase of 2.25 million barrels. Gasoline stocks, already at 17-year highs, are expected to rise by 400,000 barrels, with forecasts ranging from a drop of 3 million barrels to an increase of 2 million barrels. Distillate stocks, including diesel and heating oil, are expected to rise by 1 million barrels, with expectations ranging from a drop of 1 million barrels to an increase of 3 million barrels. Refiners are expected to trim their utilization rate relative to capacity by 0.1 percentage point to 85.8% of capacity. High crude oil inventories have pushed front-month contracts well below the price of forward contracts along the price curve, which encourages stockbuilding. "A build [in crude stocks] could add even more downward pressure at the front-end of the curve, but at some point, we think this weakness will prompt some selling in the forward market as well, as the current overstocked situation won't be changing all that soon," said Tim Evans, analyst at Citi Futures Perspective. May reformulated gasoline futures were down 1.27 cents at $2.3282 a gallon, while May heating oil futures were 1.11 cent lower at $2.2271 a gallon. - By David Bird, Dow Jones Newswires, 1-212-416-2141; david.bird@dowjones.com

Source