NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Oil futures advanced in preholiday trade on Tuesday ahead of weekly U.S. oil inventory data due later in the day.
February crude oil CLG4 -0.04% climbed 31 cents, or 0.3%, to close at $99.22 a barrel. Oil futures registered little reaction to data that showed orders for durable goods rose a stronger-than-expected 3.5% in November, topping forecasts for a rise of 2%.
Oil prices on Monday fell 41 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $98.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as traders took profits from recent gains. Recent data has signaled the U.S. economy may be improving and energy demand may consequently increase.
Analysts said the continuing Libyan production outage and falling commercial crude stocks are among the supports for crude-oil prices in the short term.
“We continue to note that there is more upside potential than downside risk from current (Libyan) production levels,” Citi Futures energy strategist Timothy Evans said in a report on Monday.
Evans forecast U.S. crude inventories to fall further over the next few weeks, “beginning with another 3-4 million-barrel draw for the week ended Dec. 20.”
