U.S. crude oil rose Wednesday, snapping a four-session losing streak after a dip below $47 a barrel earlier in the day. Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 72 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $48.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract had traded as low as $46.83 earlier, extending a 4.2% drop on Tuesday that left crude oil at its lowest since April 2009.
Earlier Wednesday, a weekly U.S. inventories report showed a surprise drop in crude supplies. The report, however, also showed bearish supply increases for gasoline and distillates, which include heating oil. U.S. crude inventories declined by 3.1 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 2, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Analysts polled by Platts had expected supplies to increase by 380,000 barrels. Gasoline inventories rose by 8.1 million barrels, while supplies of distillates rose by 11.2 million barrels.
The analysts surveyed by Platts had expected gasoline stocks to increase by 2.25 million barrels and distillate stocks to increase by 2.06 million barrels. The recent, relentless sell off in oil has led to some traders betting the commodity could fall as low as $20 a barrel.
Brent crude for February delivery on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose 5 cents, or 0.1%, to finish at $51.15 a barrel. It had earlier briefly dropped below the $50-a-barrel mark for the first time since May 2009. Brent retreated 3.8% Tuesday. Elsewhere in energy trading, gasoline for February declined 2 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $1.3376 a gallon on Nymex. February heating oil dropped 3 cents, or 1.5%, to $1.6999 a gallon on Nymex.