mw: Oil futures extend gains as traders await supply data
American Petroleum Institute will report data on inventories on Tuesday
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures rose on Tuesday, as speculation about a European rescue plan for Greece lifted sentiment in the equity and commodity markets and weighed on the U.S. dollar.
Crude oil for March delivery gained 56 cents, or 0.8%, to $72.45 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.
Earlier, the contract rose to an intraday high of $72.76 a barrel.
Oil prices gained 1% on Monday, regaining some ground after steep declines last week.
Sentiment was boosted on Tuesday following news that European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will leave an event in Australia earlier than planned to attend a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday.
The euro rose 0.6% to $1.3730. The dollar index (DXY 80.13, -0.17, -0.21%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.4% to 80.095.
The dollar's decline boosted dollar-denominated oil prices. U.S. stock futures, meanwhile, pointed to a higher opening on Wall Street.
Supply data ahead
The American Petroleum Institute will report data on petroleum inventories at 4:30 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. The Energy Information Administration will release its inventory data on Wednesday morning.
Analysts polled by Platts estimate a 2-million-barrel increase in U.S. crude supplies for the week ended Feb. 5. They also project an increase of 1 million barrels in gasoline supplies and a decline of 1.75 million barrels in distillate stocks.
In other news, China Investment Corp., the nation's sovereign wealth fund, has bought 2 million shares of U.S. Oil Fund LP (USO 35.09, -0.12, -0.34%) , according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The stake is valued at $78.6 million.
The Chinese sovereign wealth fund has also bought 1.45 million shares of SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD 105.50, +1.46, +1.40%) valued at $155.6 million. Read more about the Chinese fund's holdings.
"This underlines China's growing importance, also as an investor in commodity markets," said analysts at Commerzbank AG in a note to clients.
