Oil increased as much as 1.2% after stocks climbed in the last hour of trading yesterday. Fed districts reporting a slower economic decline or signs of stabilization comprise of San Francisco, the largest district, New York, Chicago, Kansas city and Dallas, the Federal Reserve said.
Yesterday, oil dropped 16 cents, or 0.3%, to $49.25 a barrel, the lowest settlement on the Nymex since April 7, 2009 after a government report showed that US stockpiles climbed to the highest level in almost 19 years as demand dropped.
The trend of higher equity prices continued into Asian trading. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 1%, to 8,832.99 as of 9:05 a.m. in Tokyo, breaking a three-day slide. The broader Topix index gained 10.13, or 1.2%, to 845.38.
Gains in oil inventories have limited future prices to between $43.62 and $54.66 a barrel over the previous month.
Oil inventories increased 5.67 million barrels to 366.7 million previous week, the highest since September 1990, the Energy Department said. Supplies were predicted to rise by 1.75 million barrels.
Stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, where New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude is delivered, dropped 742,000 barrels to 29.2 million last week.
Gasoline stockpiles dropped 944,000 barrels to 216.5 million in the week ended April 10, 2009 according to the department. Distillate fuels, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, declined 1.17 million barrels to 139.6 million.
