Investing.com - Crude oil prices settled higher despite a sharp retreat from session highs as easing U.S.-China trade tensions offset signs of rising U.S. stockpiles.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for May delivery rose 17 cents to settle at $63.54 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 36 cents to trade at $68.39 a barrel.
Crude futures gave up early gains after hitting an intraday high of $64.11 following a report from energy provider Genscape showing crude stockpiles at the cushing storage hub in Oklahoma rose to 2.5 million barrels for the week to April 3, according to traders who saw the data.
Investor concerns over signs pointing to a uptick in U.S. crude stockpiles come just a day after inventories of U.S. crude fell by 4.617 million barrels last week, confounding expectations for a rise of 1.4 million barrels, according to data from the Energy Information Agency (EIA).
The intraday rally in crude prices came amid improving sentiment on risker assets after the U.S. indicated a willingness to hash out a trade deal with China, easing investor fears of a full-blown trade war.
Despite the weakness in crude, analysts continued to up their bets on oil prices amid expectations that global crude supplies could face disruption as the threat of sanctions against both Iran and Veneuezla have increased.
“We have raised our estimate for Brent in 2018 to $67.50 a barrel as the geopolitical risk premium has increased since the arrival of Mike Pompeo at the Secretary of State and John Bolton as National Security Advisor, making sanctions against Iran and Venezuela more likely,” Natixis Research said.