Crude oil for November delivery gained $1.15, or 1.8%, to $67.86 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. The contract ended marginally lower on Tuesday. The gains came "on the back of the weaker dollar," wrote analysts at Commerzbank. The dollar index (DXY 76.56, -0.56, -0.73%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.7% to 76.585 in recent trading. When the dollar declines, oil prices tend to gain because they become cheaper for holders of other currencies. At 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, the Energy Information Administration will report data on U.S. petroleum inventories for the week ended Sept. 25. Analysts surveyed by Platts expect an increase of 2.1 million barrels in crude inventories and a buildup of 1.2 million barrels in gasoline stocks. They also project an increase of 900,000 barrels in distillate supplies. A bigger-than-expected rise in inventories "cannot be ruled out, though, given the lower oil demand from refineries," the Commerzbank analysts said. "We believe a further drop in prices is only a matter of time, on the back of such news." The American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that crude inventories rose by 2.76 million barrels and distillate stocks increased by 2.3 million barrels. Gasoline stocks declined by 1.7 million barrels, the API also said. Also on Globex, October reformulated gasoline added 3 cents, or 2%, to $1.66 a gallon and October heating oil rose 1 cent to $1.71 a gallon. Both contracts will expire at the end of trading on Wednesday. November natural-gas futures added 2 cents to $4.90 per million British thermal units. Stock futures pointed to opening gains on Wall Street, as European shares rose and investors awaited the ADP employment survey for September, the third release of second-quarter gross domestic product as well as Chicago PMI data for September. See Indications. Polya Lesova is reporter for MarketWatch, based in Frankfurt.

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