By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Energy stocks rose Wednesday ahead of weekly U.S. petroleum inventories data, as the sector maintained its upward momentum for a fifth consecutive session.
In energy trading, crude-oil futures gained 52 cents to $80.20 a barrel, playing off a fresh austerity plan from Greece designed to help shore up its sovereign debt as well as mildly positive U.S. economic data.
Private-sector firms in the U.S. eliminated 20,000 jobs in February, according to forecast based on a sampling of ADP payrolls data. Although it's the 25th decline in a row, the figure came in as the lowest number of lost jobs since January 2008.
Still to come at 10 a.m. Eastern time is the ISM services index for February.
On Wall Street, stocks opened higher with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU 10,438, +32.19, +0.31%) adding more than 0.3%.
Setting the pace for energy-sector benchmarks, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index (OSX 208.56, +2.21, +1.07%) tacked on 0.8% to stand at 208 points. The NYSE Arca Oil Index (XOI 1,046, +5.58, +0.54%) rose 0.3% to 1,043 points, as the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index (XNG 547.54, +1.99, +0.37%) added 0.3% to 547 points.
Analysts polled by Platts expect a rise in crude inventories of 1.1 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 26. They also project that gasoline stockpiles rose 160,000 barrels, while distillates supplies fell 975,000 barrels.
Among energy stocks in the spotlight, Lazard Capital markets reiterated a buy rating on Anadarko Petroleum (APC 71.13, +0.25, +0.35%) after it held an analyst meeting and issued a bullish production outlook. See full story.
"Though we didn't hear anything entirely unexpected... we came away with even stronger conviction in our belief that Anadarko is a best-in-class exploration and production firm," Lazard analyst Eric Hagen said. "Anadarko possesses a unique resource base that offers visible, low cost production growth from shale gas coupled with high impact, deepwater oil projects."
