Crude oil futures are trading slightly higher in the Asia electronic trades today extending yesterday’s gains on less than expected rise in the inventories.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery is trading up 6 cents at $ 96.68 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It settled $1, or 1.1%, higher at $96.62 a barrel yesterday. The counter settled at a one-month high Wednesday after a report showed U.S. oil stockpiles rose less than expected last week.
Oil inventories increased 200,000 barrels to 395.5 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said. The rise pushed oil inventories to their highest level since the EIA began keeping weekly records in August 1982, though the gain was less than anticipated by experts and offset by a steep rise in fuel demand.
U.S. oil stockpiles have been rising steadily since the beginning of the year, fueled largely by a steady rise in domestic production. U.S. stockpiles are up roughly 10% year to date. Market participants said they were surprised by last week's sharp pickup in demand, according to the EIA. The agency's metric for refined fuel use rose 6.5% to 19.1 million barrels a day, although demand for gasoline--the biggest component--was essentially flat.
On Tuesday, the EIA said Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, boosted production 1.8% last month to 9.2 million barrels a day, the highest level since December. The data also showed overall output from members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries rose to a five-month high.
On the data front today, China's consumer price index rose slightly more than expected in April, while wholesale prices extended their fall. The April CPI showed a gain of 2.4% from a year earlier, led by a 4% rise in food prices, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. The gain was more than March's 2.1%, though below February's spike of 3.2%.
The producer price index, meanwhile, fell by the most since October, dropping 2.6% against a decline of 1.9% in March. Chinese shares lost ground after the numbers, which would tend to reduce the odds of Beijing maintaining a loose monetary policy.
MCX May crude oil futures may open today’s session near Rs 5190 levels with support near 5170-40 levels and resistance near Rs 5210 levels.
Source by Commodity Insights
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