Oil prices fell below $77 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed U.S. crude supplies rose unexpectedly last week.
Benchmark crude for August delivery was down 26 cents to $76.89 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained $2.20 to settle at $77.15 on Tuesday.
Crude inventories rose 1.7 million barrels last week the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday against a drop of 2.6 million barrels forecast in an analyst survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw—Hill Cos.
Inventories of gasoline and distillates rose, the API said.
The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Wednesday.
A strong start to second—quarter U.S. corporate earnings reports has helped buoy oil prices this week. Profits by Alcoa Inc. and Intel Corp. have beat analyst estimates. Google Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Bank of America Corp. are scheduled to announce earnings later this week.
“Economic guidance should continue to rule in moving oil prices,” Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report. “This difficult trading environment is likely to continue for at least a couple more months with trading confined to the spring—summer range of about $70 to $80.”
In other Nymex trading in August contracts, heating oil fell 0.72 cent to $2.0402 a gallon, gasoline dropped 0.80 cent to $2.0741 a gallon and natural gas rose 1.5 cents to $4.369 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Brent crude was down 34 cents to $76.31 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.
