A huge rise in US crude stockpile slowed the upward march of oil prices in early trading today.
Reuters reports that London Brent crude for May delivery was down 8 cents at $36.73 a barrel by 0117 GMT (8.17 p.m. ET), after settling up 24 cents on Tuesday. The contract touched an intraday peak of $37.25 on Tuesday, the highest since Jan. 5.
NYMEX crude for April delivery was down 34 cents, or around 1 percent, at $34.06 a barrel, after settling up 65 cents on Tuesday on the back of firm Wall Street. U.S. crude hit a one-month high on Tuesday.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 9.9 million barrels last week, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed after Tuesday’s settlement. That was well above a 3.6-million barrel increase expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.
Some traders were bracing for the possibility that official data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) due later in the day would show a large build similar to the industry numbers, which could cut short the oil market rebound of the past two weeks.