LONDON—Oil futures firmed, aided by a stock-market rally and a big drop in U.S. crude stockpiles.
The front-month August Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange recently was up 0.6%, or 51 cents, at $74.02 a barrel. The front-month August contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange, called West Texas Intermediate, was up 49 cents higher at $74.56 a barrel.
One factor boosting markets is an improved outlook for global economic growth. The International Monetary Fund raised its forecast for 2010 to 4.6% from 4.2%, which should lead to rising oil demand. That came on the heels of Wednesday's report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that revised up its 2010 global oil demand forecast by 60,000 barrels a day to 85.82 million barrels a day.
The American Petroleum Institute's weekly report showed U.S. crude stockpiles fell 7.23 million barrels for the week ending July 2. The more influential weekly statistics from the U.S. Department of Energy are published Thursday afternoon, which could provide another fillip to oil prices if they mirror the API.
Crude oil inventories are expected to fall by 1.8 million barrels, according to the mean of 17 analysts' forecasts, much less than the API revealed Wednesday.
"The market is still swinging with risk appetite, though a potentially positive report on U.S. inventories could give it some slight fundamental support," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB capital.
Gasoline inventories are seen dropping by 500,000 barrels, according to the analysts' average.
Stocks of distillate fuel, which includes heating oil and diesel, are expected to rise by 1.4 million barrels.
Write to Paddy Gourlay at patrick.gourlay@dowjones.com
