Crude oil futures finished modestly higher on Tuesday, 24 March 2015 holding near a two-week high, as upbeat manufacturing data boosted the outlook for crude demand ahead of weekly reports on U.S. petroleum supplies.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for delivery in May settled at $47.51 a barrel, up 6 cents, or 0.1% — the contract's third-straight session gain.
There was a downbeat economic report coming out of China Tuesday. The preliminary HSBC China manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) had a reading of 49.2 in March versus 50.7 in February. The March number is an 11-month low. A number below 50.0 suggests contraction in the sector. Since China is a major raw commodity importer, this news is a bearish underlying factor for the raw commodity sector.
Meantime, the European Union reported an upbeat PMI number. The Markit PMI came in at 54.1 in March versus 53.3 in February. The new orders segment of that report showed the largest rise in four years. This news helped the Euro currency continue its rebound versus the U.S. dollar.
In USA, data on Tuesday showed the U.S. consumer-price index climbed in February for the first time in four month. The February CPI was up 0.2% from January versus pre-report expectations for a reading of up 0.1%. The core CPI index was up 1.7%, year-on-year. However, overall, the CPI data is not real worrisome to inflation hawks and gold prices worked back higher during the trading session.
Among other energy products, April gasoline fell less than half a cent to $1.7997 a gallon, while April heating oil lost 2.4 cents, or 1.4%, to $1.7065 a gallon.
April natural gas settled at $2.786 per million British thermal units, up 5.3 cents, or 1.9%.