Crude-oil futures on Thursday bounced from a two-year low and from a dip under $80 U.S. a barrel, scoring their highest one-day dollar gain in three weeks.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November rose 92 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $82.70 U.S. a barrel. It earlier touched below $80 U.S. a barrel for the first time since late June 2012.
November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose 69 cents, or 0.8%, to end at $84.47 U.S. a barrel. That was Brent’s largest one-day percentage gain in a month.
Both benchmarks snapped a three-session losing streak that took them to multi-year lows for most of the week, on ongoing concerns about tepid demand amid rising output. Wednesday’s carnage: Oil ends at two-year low; earlier rebound short lived
Earlier Thursday, the Energy Information Administration said U.S. crude inventories rose 8.9 million barrels on the week ended Oct. 10.
Analysts polled by Platts had expected an increase of 2.5 million barrels. The bearish rise in crude inventories was due to reduced refinery demand, analysts at UBS said in a note Thursday.
The EIA added that gasoline inventories declined four million barrels on the week, and stockpiles of distillates, which include heating oil, decreased 1.5 million barrels. The report was out a day later than usual due to Monday’s Columbus Day holiday in the U.S.
