MW: Oil lower after higher-than-expected supply rise
By Claudia Assis
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures turned lower Wednesday after a U.S. government weekly inventories report showed a higher-than-expected increase. Crude for April delivery CLJ2 -0.71% declined 17 cents, or 0.2%, to trade at $106.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had traded at $106.66 a barrel moments before the data. The Energy Information Administration reported crude supplies rose 4.2 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 24. Analysts polled by Platts had expected an increase by 1 million barrels. The EIA also reported gasoline stocks down 1.6 million barrels on the week and distillates supplies down 2.1 million barrels. The analysts surveyed by Platts had expected gasoline inventories to decline 180,000 barrels, and distillates inventories to decline 1.3 million.
