West Texas Intermediate oil traded near the highest level in
five weeks. U.S. crude inventories probably rose as domestic output stayed near
the strongest in two decades, a Bloomberg News survey showed.
Futures were little changed after advancing a second day
yesterday. Crude stockpiles increased by 1.4 million barrels to 384.1 million
last week, the highest since June, according to the median of seven analyst
estimates before an Energy Information Administration report tomorrow. Domestic
production was 7.15 million barrels a day in the prior week, just 9,000 barrels
a day less than the 21-year high reached in the seven days ended March 8.
“The market’s been watching the U.S. reserves quite closely,
which have been climbing somewhat, as domestic production has been coming on
stream and demand has remained relatively flat,” said David Lennox, an analyst
at Fat Prophets in Sydney who predicts WTI will struggle to rise above $95 a
barrel for the rest of this year. “Barring any supply shock events, we believe
the topside will be somewhat limited.”
WTI for May delivery was at $94.72 a barrel, down 9 cents,
in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:15 a.m. in
Tokyo. The volume of all futures traded was 55 percent below the 100-day
average for the time of day. The contract rose $1.10 to $94.81 yesterday, the
highest close since Feb. 19. Prices have advanced 3.2 percent this year.
Brent oil for May settlement fell 17 cents to $108 a barrel
on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The volume of all futures
traded was 65 percent below the 100-day average. Prices are down 2.8 percent in
2013. The European benchmark crude’s premium to WTI was at $13.28. It closed at
$13.36 yesterday, the least since July.
(Source: Bloomberg)
No comments:
Post a Comment