By Polya Lesova and V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Crude futures rebounded Wednesday after suffering their biggest one-day drop since October, as traders monitored the situation at a damaged Japanese nuclear plant as well as political turmoil in Bahrain.
Crude oil for April delivery rose $1.92 to $99.10 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.
“It’s a reassessment of what’s happening in Japan,” said Christophe Barret, global oil analyst at Calyon. “We have more news that indicate that the problem [at the nuclear plant] can be contained.”
“Then you have the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia sending troops to Bahrain. It appears to be a dangerous move,” he said.
Crude futures slumped 4% Tuesday in New York after new incidents at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant prompted Prime Minister Naoto Kan to warn of a “substantial” radiation leak.
The situation at the plant remained fast-changing and precarious Wednesday, with engineers and scientists working hard to bring it under control.
Natural-gas prices continued to rally on expectations that demand for the fuel would rise in the wake of the radiation leakage after last week’s earthquake. The April contract added 3.2 cents to $3.973 per million British thermal units.
Wednesday’s advance in oil prices came as Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average (JP:NI225 9,094, +488.57, +5.68%) climbed almost 6%, after plunging more than 16% in the previous two sessions. Read more about the Tokyo market.
Meanwhile, security forces in Bahrain cracked down on antigovernment protesters early Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move came after Bahrain declared a state of emergency.
