Crude-oil futures shook off earlier weakness on Thursday, 16 April 2015 to tally a six-session gain of more than 12% as a smaller-than-expected weekly rise in U.S. crude supplies was seen as a possible sign of a slowdown in U.S. production. Traders also digested details of the latest monthly oil report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which included expectations for an increase in demand for the oil the group produces.
May crude tacked on 32 cents or 0.6%, to settle at $56.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange—a fresh high for the year. OPEC said on Thursday that demand for its own crude would rise slightly to roughly 29.3 million barrels a day in 2015. At the same time, demand for non-OPEC supplies would fall by about 165,000 barrels a day, it said. It also expects the boom in U.S. oil-supply to end this year. At its last meeting in November, OPEC decided not to cut production even though oil prices had been pushed sharply lower, ultimately suffering a decline of close to 50% for 2014. Iran recently called on OPEC to cut production.
Greek government bonds plunged Thursday, sending the yield on the country's two-year debt above 27%. Greece is in danger of running out of cash if bailout money from its international creditors isn't released soon. But talks on extending the country's aid program continue to drag on.
The dollar declined after a batch of downbeat economic data. U.S. initial jobless claims for the second week of April rose to the highest level in six weeks. March housing starts, meanwhile, rebounded slightly, while the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index in April showed a mild improvement.
AMong other energy products, May gasoline settled nearly flat at $1.935 a gallon and May heating oil ended at $1.908 a gallon, up 1.9 cents, or 1%.
Natural-gas futures turned higher along with oil even though the EIA reported that U.S. supplies for the fuel rose 63 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 10. That was more than the market expected. May natural gas climbed 7.4 cents, or 2.8%, to $2.684 per million British thermal units.