Oil edged up above $64 a barrel today, after four consecutive days of falls on worries about the economy that have brought the stock market rally to a halt and pushed the dollar higher.
US crude futures rose 39 cents to $64.44 a barrel by 1.01pm, having settled down 4 per cent on Monday at $64.05, its lowest settlement in more than a month.
London Brent crude was up 35 cents at $64.40.
Oil prices have fallen seven percent in July and Mike Wittner, Societe Generale's global head of oil research, said some investors were trying to take advantage of the sharp falls in the previous four sessions.
“It is not going to continue lower in a straight line. We will see more of bargain hunting by investors,” Wittner said.
He said the market focus would shift to a spate of statistics to be released throughout this week and next, including American Petroleum Institute (API), US Energy Information Administration and the International Energy Agency.
Industry group API will release its weekly crude and products stocks data at 9.30pm. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast data will show a 2.2 million barrel fall in crude oil inventories, making a fall for the fifth week.
Gasoline and middle distillate inventories were forecast for increases of 800,000 barrels and 1.7 million barrels, respectively.
The EIA will release its monthly report later on Tuesday and weekly statistics tomorrow.
In June, it raised its forecast for 2009 world demand by 10,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 83.68 million bpd, the first time since September that it had increased the demand estimate in its rolling monthly forecast.
Oil prices have risen from below $33 levels in December last year due to some signs of global economic recovery.
Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said earlier on Tuesday it had raised its oil price forecasts for 2009 to $59 a barrel for Brent and to $58.50 for US crude, up from forecasts of $52 for both benchmarks.
“Our price revisions come on the back of a weaker US dollar, a significant improvement in liquidity conditions for the global economy, and a slightly tighter-than-expected global oil market balance,” the bank said.
Reuters