Oil futures finished slightly lower on Tuesday as initial weekly data on domestic crude inventories revealed a fourth consecutive rise, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
November West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 34 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $51.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Just one day earlier, prices surged 3.1% to settle at $52.22 a barrel, its highest since mid-April.
November Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 58 cents, or 1%, to end trading at $58.44 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange. Brent crude climbed 3.8% on Monday to reach the highest front-month contract finish since early July 2015.
Weekly data on domestic petroleum supplies will be released by the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday followed by the Energy Information Administration early Wednesday.
Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts expect the EIA to report a weekly rise of 1.3 million barrels for U.S. crude inventories.
Meanwhile, October natural gas settled flat at $2.918 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract expires at Wednesday’s settlement.
