Yahoo Finance Oil Takes a Breather After Rallying To 3-Week Highs
Investing.com - Crude prices were relatively flat on Tuesday, pausing for breath after rallying to the highest level in around three weeks in the prior session due to worries over escalating violence between Iraqi troops and Kurdish forces near Kirkuk.
The fighting follows a referendum in which the Kurds, who run their own semiautonomous region in northern Iraq, voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence last month, defying Baghdad, regional powers and the U.S.
Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., held steady at around $57.88 a barrel by 3:30AM ET (0730GMT). It rose to its best level since Sept. 28 at $58.47 on Monday.
Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures was little changed at $51.86 a barrel, after reaching a three-week high of $52.37 in the last session.
Investors looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products to gauge the strength of demand in the world’s largest oil consumer.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report at 4:30PM ET (2030GMT) Tuesday.
Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around 4.7 million barrels, which would mark the fourth weekly decline in a row.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures shed 0.2 cents to $1.618 a gallon, heating oil added 0.4 cents to $1.816 a gallon, while natural gas futures inched up 2.9 cents to $2.975 per million British thermal units.
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