Crude prices rise on data, sentiment

Crude oil prices were higher Tuesday on optimistic data and ahead of Wednesday’s weekly US inventories report from the Energy Information Administration, which is expected to show that crude stockpiles dropped by nearly 2 million barrels last week, but that gasoline and distillates inventories were up a bit from the previous week’s levels.

Investor sentiment was helped by strong interest in debt auctions in Ireland, Spain and Belgium during the day, while equities markets were higher, the US dollar weakened versus the euro, and new data showed that New York region manufacturing output in up this month and US import prices fell in May.

All of this new information, taken together, increased investor appetite for riskier deals.

July contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up $1.51s to $76.63 per barrel in afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude was last up $1.31 to $76.97 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex July gasoline futures added 4 cents to $2.12 per gallon, while July heating oil futures also gained 4 cents, to $2.07 per gallon and July natural gas futures were up 10 cents to $5.10 per million British thermal units.

The retail price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was down slightly overnight to $2.696 per gallon on average nationally in the United States, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.