Oil settles off intraday highs after US crude, products build blunt rally

摘要

Crude futures settled in the black Friday, but well under intraday highsafter a bearish US Energy Information Administration inventory reporthalted an early session rally.NYMEX February WTI settled up 87 cents at $47.96/b, after havingtraded as high as $49.22/b, while ICE March Brent was up $1.11 at$57.06/b despite having touched $58.31/b intraday.US commercial crude inventories were static week on week, withthe EIA data showing nationwide stocks edged 7,000 barrels higher to441.42 million barrels during the week ended December 28.US refined product stocks, on the other hand, moved sharplyhigher last week amid surging refinery utilization, EIA data showed.Distillate stocks increased 9.53 million barrels to a 10-week high of129.43 million barrels, and gasoline in storage grew 6.89 million barrelsto 239.99 million barrels, the highest level since mid-June.