Investing.com — U.S. crude oil futures were higher in post-settlement trading Tuesday despite the American Petroleum Institute reporting a smaller-than-expected decline in weekly domestic crude stocks as rising Middle East geopolitical tensions continued to offer support.
, the U.S. benchmark, recently traded at $70.75 a barrel following the report after settling up 2.4% at $69.83 a barrel. Oil prices were supported by rising fears about supply disruptions in the Middle East after Iran launched a missile attack against Israel, with the latter vowing to retaliate.
decreased by about 1.46 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 27, compared with a draw of 4.3M barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a decline of about 2.1M barrels.
Gasoline stockpiles increased by about 909,000 barrels, while distillate inventories — the class of fuels that includes diesel and — declined by 2.67M barrels.
The report is due Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT).