Oil climbs 4% despite rise in U.S. inventories
Oil prices rose more than 4% Wednesday, extending gains from the previous session as improved risk appetite provided support despite data showing an unexpected rise in U.S. oil inventories.
Brent crude futures rose 4.15% to settle at $72.23 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 4.61% to settle at $70.30 per barrel.
Futures are rebounding after dropping around 7% on Monday, following a deal by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, together known as OPEC+, to boost supply by 400,000 barrels per day from August through December.
The sell-off was exacerbated by fears that a rise in cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in major markets like the United States, Britain and Japan would affect demand.
The price gains on Wednesday also come despite a rise in U.S. crude stockpiles for the first time since May. Crude inventories rose unexpectedly by 2.1 million barrels last week to 439.7 million barrels, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed. Analysts had expected a 4.5 million-barrel drop.
Still, gasoline and distillate inventories posted draws of 121,000 barrels and 1.3 million barrels, respectively.
Reference: CNBC
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