MW:Crude-oil futures rise ahead of U.S. supply report
By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures extended gains in electronic trading Wednesday, as risk appetite improved amid easing concerns about Europe, and ahead of a weekly U.S. inventory report.
Oil for delivery in May CLK2 +0.17% added 21 cents, or 0.2%, to $104.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange during Asian trading hours.
Crude had settled 1.2% higher in the North American session on Tuesday after a successful Spanish bond sale and solid German investor confidence data soothed concerns about the euro zone and pointed to a strengthening global economy.
Optimism carried over into the Asian session on Wednesday, pushing equity markets sharply higher and while commodity markets also gained. Read more on Asian equity markets.
On the supply side, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported late Tuesday that crude-oil inventories rose by 3.4 million barrels for the week ended April 13.
The API data comes ahead of the more closely-watched U.S. Energy Information Administration report due later in the day.
Analysts polled by Platts expect data to show a rise of 400,000 barrels in crude stockpiles and an increase of 140,000 barrels in gasoline supplies.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
