Investing.com – Crude settled lower on Tuesday, ahead of a report on U.S. inventories from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) due to be released on Wednesday.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for May delivery lost 88 cents to settle at $47.34 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent lost 60 cents to settle at $51.02 a barrel.
Crude prices lost nearly 2%, as investors feared that the next batch of inventories data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) at 16.30 EDT on Tuesday and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday at 10:30 EDT would reveal a rise in U.S. crude stockpiles.
The Energy Information Agency report on Wednesday is expected to show a crude stock build of 2.8 million barrels.
Meanwhile a slump in the dollar to six-week lows failed to lift dollar denominated crude – the US Dollar Index dipped below the 100 level and is on track for its fifth straight session of losses weighed by the Federal Reserve’s dovish outlook on rate hikes.
Elsewhere, investors disregarded a report from insider sources within OPEC, which suggested that OPEC oil producers increasingly favor extending its deal to cut oil production beyond June.
In November last year, OPEC and other producers, including Russia agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in an effort to combat the oversupply issue that has pressured prices over the last two years.