Oil rose on Wednesday, driven by expectations for a decline in U.S. crude inventories and bringing price gains for December to 10 percent, which would be the strongest performance in the final month of the year in six years.
Brent crude oil futures were up 32 cents on the day at $55.67 a barrel by 1217 GMT, while U.S. crude futures rose 30 cents to $53.60 a barrel.
Brent’s rally is its largest so far for any December since 2010, thanks to an unprecedented wave of investor buying ahead of an anticipated drop in supply from some of the world’s top exporters next year.
“Oil seems determined to end the year on a high note. Pre-holiday thinned trading and a fresh 14-year high for the dollar index failed to dampen bullish spirits,” PVM Oil Associates analyst Stephen Brennock said in a note.
Hourly volume in the front-month contract was around 2,300 lots on Wednesday, compared with an average of 2,400 for hourly volume in the second half of December, according to trading data from the InterContinental Exchange.
An expected drop in U.S. crude stocks helped…. read more….
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