Crude Oil Prices Rise to Multi-Month High
Crude oil soared to its highest finish in more than 3 1/2 months on Tuesday as some positive housing data provided some encouragement for energy demand. The April contract expired following Tuesday’s session.
Light sweet crude oil for April delivery finished at $49.16, up $1.81, at the highest close since Dec. 1 for a front-month contract. Prices reached as high as $49.82 earlier in the day.
May oil, which takes over as the front-month contract, added $1.99 to finish the session at $50.04 per barrel. This was the contract’s highest finish since Jan. 15.
Traders looked ahead to the Energy Information Administration’s inventory report on Wednesday. Last week, the EIA said crude oil inventories increased 749,000 barrels in the week ended March 6. This is a little higher than the expectations of economists, who were looking for a build of about 300,000 barrels.
On the economic front, the U.S. Labor Department revealed Tuesday that producer prices rose by 0.1 percent for February. This followed a rise of 0.8 percent in the previous month.
Economists had expected producer prices to rise by 0.4 percent.