Another tumble in Chinese shares and losses on Wall Street capped gains in energy prices. Crude oil for September delivery was last up 25 cents at $69.45 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. "Despite yesterday's gains, market participants are increasingly concerned with the strength and the sustainability of an economic recovery at the moment," said Nimit Khamar, analyst at Sucden Financial Research, in a note to clients. Should these concerns intensify, crude prices will become more vulnerable to a sell-off toward $60 a barrel, he said. Oil futures rallied 3.6% on Tuesday, as the U.S. dollar fell against most of its rivals, and as Wall Street stocks posted gains, buoying sentiment in the energy market after two days of declines. See full story. U.S. stocks posted losses, with the S&P 500 index (SPX 986.97, -2.70, -0.27%) falling 0.2% to 987 points. Overnight, China's top stock markets suffered steep declines, with the Shanghai Composite Index falling 4.3% and the Shenzhen Composite Index ending down 4.9%. A China-led fall by global equity markets boosted the Japanese yen and provided a modest lift for the dollar, as investors moved toward assets perceived as less risky. Supply data ahead The Energy Information Administration (EIA) will report its more closely watched data on Wednesday morning. The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that crude supplies declined by 6.1 million barrels last week. The API also said that distillate stocks rose by 1.5 million barrels, while gasoline stocks dropped by 847,000 barrels. "The EIA numbers have not been tracking the API so closely of late, and considering the strong price gains of the past 24 hours, the possibility of a downside reversal below the $70 mark remains strong, particularly if the EIA data fails to pack enough of a surprise," said Edward Meir, analyst at MF Global, in a research note. Analysts polled by Platts expect the EIA data to show that crude stocks rose by 1.1 million barrels during the week ended Aug. 14. They also project a decline of 1.7 million barrels in gasoline stocks as well as a build of 800,000 barrels in distillate stocks. Refinery utilization rates are expected to increase by 0.25 percentage point to 83.75%. Also on Globex, September reformulated gasoline fell 0.9% to $1.9813 a gallon and September heating oil dropped 0.7% to $1.8528 a gallon. Natural-gas futures rebound from 7-year low September natural-gas futures gained 5.40 cents, or 1.7%, to $3.148 per million British thermal units. On Tuesday, the contract fell 6.70 cents to end at $3.096 per million British thermal units, posting its lowest closing level since Aug. 14, 2002, when the front-month contract settled at $2.910 per million British thermal units, according to historical data from the CME Group. "If the market does hold the $3.00 mark through expiration next week it will reveal an inherent strength that will no doubt surprise many and may ignite a short-covering rally," said John Kilduff, senior vice president of energy at MF Global. "If, though, the market breaches $3.00 quite easily, it may generate considerable selling momentum," Kilduff wrote in a note to clients. The EIA will report data on natural-gas supplies on Thursday morning. IHS Global Insight is projecting a storage build of 55 billion cubic feet for the week ended August 14.

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