Oil prices settle higher as U.S. crude supplies drop to lowest since 2018
Oil prices climbed Wednesday to their highest settlement in about two months after the Energy Information Administration reported a weekly decline of 4.6 million barrels in U.S. crude inventories to 413.3 million barrels - the lowest since 2018. A larger-than-expected draw in U.S. crude-oil supplies coupled with a large draw at the Cushing, Okla., delivery hub, even as petroleum product stocks saw much larger builds than expected, said Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors. "Crude has taken this as bullish, and we tend to agree, in the short term," he said. February West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.42, or nearly 1.8%, to settle at $82.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest front-month contract finish since Nov. 9, FactSet data show.
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