Crude oil futures are trading flat in the Asia electronic session today with counter still suppressed by the hefty climb in last week’s crude inventories and weak tone in Asia equities.
April delivery crude oil futures are trading flat at $90.43 per barrel in Asia electronic session on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Yesterday, it declined by 39 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $90.43 a barrel. Prices, which climbed 0.8% on Tuesday, had traded below $90 for much of the session — falling to as low as $89.55.
The Fed’s Beige Book, released a half hour before the Nymex close Wednesday, helped lift prices back to the $90 level. The Beige Book said economic activity expanded at the same “modest to moderate pace” shown in the prior survey released in mid-January, which was supportive for energy demand.
Oil prices came under pressure after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude supplies climbed by 3.8 million barrels for the week ended March 1. Analysts polled by Platts expected a 1.1 million-barrel climb.
The EIA follows the American Petroleum Institute’s weekly report, released late Tuesday, which showed that crude supplies jumped by 5.6 million barrels last week.
On economic front today, the Bank of Japan left its policy interest rate and size of asset-purchase program unchanged by a unanimous vote, as widely expected. The decisions were made at the last meeting of the central banks monetary policy board before Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa and two of his deputy governors step down later in the month.
The central bank said the local economy has stopped weakening against the backdrop of an improvement in overseas economies, and that while it is expected to level off for the time being, it is likely to "return to a moderate recovery path" in due course.
MCX March crude oil may open today’s session near Rs 4950-60 levels with resistance near Rs 4990 levels and support near Rs 4920 levels.
Source by Commodity Insights
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