By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. crude stockpiles unexpectedly rose last week, fanning investor fears over a widening glut in supplies at a time when rising global Covid-19 cases has cooled the recovery in demand.
West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. crude prices, fell 1.72% a barrel on the news, after settling down 1.48% at $62.44 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 0.436 million barrels for the week ended April 15, according to an estimate released Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute. That compared with a draw of 3.6 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week.
The API also showed that gasoline inventories fell by about 1.617 million last week, compared with a 5.6 million fall in the prior week, and distillate stocks rose by about 0.655 million barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 2.975 million barrels last week.