Oil prices bounced Tuesday as traders expected to see a further reduction in U.S. crude supplies in Wednesday's government report. U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday will publish its report on crude data of last week.
The continued drop in U.S. crude inventory provided some support for oil prices. For the week ended on Aug. 7, U.S. crude supplies shed 1.7 million barrels to 453.6 million, still 86.6 million barrels more than one year before, according to EIA. U.S. crude production also fell 70,000 barrels to 9.395 million barrels a day during that week.
Upbeat economic data from U.S. also helped to boost the market. U.S. housing starts came in much better than expected with privately-owned housing starts in July at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,206,000, the highest since October 2007, said the Commerce Department Tuesday.
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,119,000, up 7. 5 percent year on year.
The U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate for September delivery, moved up 75 cents to settle at 42.62 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The global benchmark, Brent crude for October delivery, increased 7 cents to close at 48.81 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Future Exchange.
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