Crude-oil futures held their gains Wednesday as traders parsed U.S. government data showing a smaller-than-expected rise in crude supplies and a surprise climb in distillate inventories.
The market also gauged the potential for energy demand against a backdrop of a slightly worse-than-expected drop in durable-goods orders and a rise in pending home sales.
Crude oil for April delivery tacked on 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $92.78 U.S. a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was trading a bit higher at around $92.85 U.S. before the supply data.
It wavered between modest gains and losses in the aftermath of the supply data and stuck to a tight trading range between the intraday low of $92.18 U.S. and high of $93.08 U.S.
The April contract closed down 48 cents at $92.63 Tuesday to mark the lowest settlement this year.
Crude supplies rose by 1.1 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 22, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday. That was less than the 2.6-million-barrel climb expected by analysts polled by Platts.
Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported a much-smaller increase of 904,000 barrels in crude-oil inventories.
Motor gasoline supplies fell 1.9 million barrels, more than analysts’ expectations for a 1.5-million-barrel decline. But distillate stockpiles climbed by 600,000 barrels, compared with forecasts for a 1.7 million-barrel fall.
On Nymex, March gasoline traded at $2.93 U.S. a gallon, down five cents, or 1.7%, and March heating oil fell three cents, or 1%, to $3 U.S. a gallon. The March contracts expire at the close of Thursday’s Nymex session.
