MW: Oil futures gain after inventories meet forecasts
By Claudia Assis
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil prices added to gains Wednesday after a weekly government supplies report came as expected. Crude for May delivery (CLK11 106.62, +0.37, +0.35%) added 62 cents, or 0.6%, to $106.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had traded at $106.55 before the report. The Energy Information Administration said U.S. supplies of crude increased 1.6 million barrels in the week ended April 8, as analysts polled by Platts expected. The EIA reported a decrease for gasoline inventories of 7 million barrels. Distillates supplies decreased 2.7 million barrels. Both figures showed deeper declines than forecast. Analysts expected a decrease of 1.3 million for gasoline and unchanged stocks of distillates.
