Despite a bigger than expected rise last week in oil inventories, the price of West Texas sweet light crude rose in New York trading, as better than expected results from aluminium producer Alcoa sparked renewed enthusiasm about the global economy.

The May futures contract for West Texas intermediate rose $1.68 to $102.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This was despite the Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealing that crude supplies in the week ended April 6th rose by 2.8m barrels; the market had been expecting a rise of 1.8m barrels.

The EIA also revealed that gasoline supplied dipped by 4.3m barrels, well above the 1.25m barrel fall expected by industry observers.

With US equities ending a five-day losing streak it was not a day to be investing in gold, the archetypal haven investment for nervous or risk-averse types, although the price of the yellow stuff held its own for much of the day.

Gold for June delivery tumbled 40 cents to $1.660.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange as declining bond yields in Europe removed some of the fear from global markets.


JH

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