Crude Oil
West Texas Intermediate crude climbed to a five-week high as U.S. consumer confidence rose in April while gasoline demand grew. Brent’s premium to WTI shrank. WTI’s weekly advance was the biggest this year. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of sentiment climbed to 82.6, the highest level since July. Gasoline demand averaged over four weeks jumped to the most in three months April 4, the Energy Information Administration said yesterday. Prices reduced gains as U.S. equities dropped. The Brent-WTI gap contracted as Libya was poised to boost oil shipments. “As the economy grows, oil demand will grow,” said Tom Finlon, Jupiter, Florida-based director of Energy Analytics Group LLC. “One of the most supportive things you can say about crude is the strong gasoline demand.” WTI rose 34 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $103.74 .
Gold
Gold rose while Eastern European currencies fell. Yellen said in March that the central bank may start to increase borrowing costs “around six months” after concluding its asset-buying program,. Since then, minutes of the Fed’s latest meeting showed the central bank played down predictions by some of its own policy makers. U.S. gross-domestic-product growth is strong enough to send Treasury 10-year yields to 3.5 percent by year-end, said Hiroki Shimazu, an economist in Tokyo at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., a unit of Japan’s second-largest publicly traded bank. Gold was little changed.
