Crude Oil futures pulled back from session highs above $62 a barrel on Wednesday, 06 May 2015 but the U.S. benchmark still marked a high for the year after government data showed that crude inventories fell unexpectedly, for the first time in 17 weeks.
June crude climbed by 53 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $60.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It climbed to highs above $62 before and shortly after the supply data, but prices settled below the session highs following a 25% climb in April.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventories fell 3.9 million barrels for the week ended 1 May 2015. Market had forecast a crude-stock climb of one million barrels. The EIA hasn't reported a fall in crude supplies since the report covering the week ended Jan. 2. The market has been waiting for data to show a decline following 21 weeks of dropping numbers of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil. Gasoline supplies were up 400,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles added 1.5 million barrels last week, according to the EIA.
The U.S. ADP national employment report for May came in at up 169,000, which is a miss to the downside. A rise of 205,000 was expected. That report is leading to ideas Friday's jobs report from the Labor Department will be weaker than initially expected. Friday's U.S. employment report for April is expecting to see the key non-farm payrolls number come in at up 220,000.
The U.S. dollar index was sharply lower and hit a new 3.5-month low on Wednesday.
On Nymex, June gasoline settled down 2.7 cents, or 1.3%, at $2.0366 a gallon, while June heating oil was little changed at $2.0161 a gallon.
June natural gas slipped less than half a cent to $2.776 per million British thermal units, ahead of Thursday's supply report.
