Crude oil futures settled little changed as investors weighed up bullish government inventory data against a strengthening dollar.

Crude oil for March delivery fell to a low of $95.04 before later settling down 2 cents at $96.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The US Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories rose 2.6m barrels for the week ended January 25th, short of the 2.9m barrel increase predicted.

Meanwhile gasoline supplies rose a bigger than expected 1.7m barrels last week, more than the 900,000 barrel increase forecast. Distillates fell by 2.3m barrels.

The report also showed that stockpiles in Cushing, Okla., fell by 300,000 barrels, a sign that surplus supplies at the key transit hub is starting to reduce as new pipelines bring oil to Gulf Coast refineries.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major global currencies, firmed to 79.728 from 79.504 on Tuesday. A stronger dollar erodes the appeal of commodities priced in the US unit.

Over on the ICE futures exchange Brent crude oil traded 31 cents higher at $116.83 a barrel.

Gold rose 0.3% on Wednesday as investors look ahead to the European Central Bank meeting.

Gold for April delivery rose $5.30 to settle at $1,678.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.




CJ

Related share prices