Crude Oil Ends Higher Ahead Of Inventories Data

(RTTNews) - U.S. crude oil ended higher Tuesday, tracking rising global equity markets, ahead of the closely watched official supply data from the Energy Information Administration. Investors also tracked rising natural gas prices, while weighing some manufactured goods data out of the U.S. that dropped less than expected.

New orders for U.S. manufactured goods showed a notable pullback in December, due largely to a steep drop in orders for transportation equipment, a report from the U.S. Commerce Department showed Tuesday. Nonetheless, the drop was less than what analysts expected.

Light Sweet Crude Oil futures for March delivery, the most actively traded contract, gained $0.76 or 0.8 percent to close at $97.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday.

Crude prices for March delivery scaled a high of $97.71 a barrel intraday and a low of $96.37.

Yesterday, oil ended at a one-week low on some disappointing U.S. manufacturing data that showed expansion at its slowest in over eight months, while tracking declining natural gas prices.

The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. unit against six major currencies, traded at 81.10 on Tuesday, up from its previous close of 81.07 late Monday in North American trade. The dollar scaled a high of 81.22 intraday and a low of 80.99.

The euro traded lower against the dollar at $1.3517 on Tuesday, as compared to its previous close of $1.3527 late Monday in North America. The euro scaled a high of $1.3538 intraday and a low of $1.3494.

In economic news, new orders for U.S. manufactured goods dropped with factory orders for December falling 1.5 percent following a revised 1.5 percent increase in November. Economists expected orders to drop by about 1.8 percent compared to the 1.8 percent growth originally reported for the previous month. The drop in factory orders largely reflect a sharp pullback in orders for transportation equipment, which tumbled by 9.7 percent in December after jumping by 8.1 percent in November.

From the eurozone, the German economy is set to expand at a faster pace this year than estimated earlier, supported mainly by the improving trend in external demand, the country's Chamber of Commerce (DIHK) said Tuesday. The agency expects gross domestic product to grow 2 percent this year, which has been revised up from the 1.7 percent growth forecast earlier. Exports are expected to grow sharply by 4.5 percent in 2014, which marks a major improvement from last year's growth rate of 0.6 percent. But strong imports, projected to grow 5.5 percent, are seen offsetting the input from exports.

Meanwhile, Germany's plant and machinery order intake declined in December as both domestic and foreign demand weakened at the end of the year, the industry group VDMA revealed Tuesday. Order intake fell 6 percent in December from last year, in contrast to the 7 percent growth registered in November. Domestic sales plunged 10 percent and foreign orders dipped 4 percent.

Elsewhere in Europe, British construction sector expanded at the fastest pace in nearly six-and-half years in January as strong order growth boosted activity across all sectors, with residential building rising to a ten-year high. Survey data released by Markit Economics and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply on Tuesday showed that the seasonally adjusted U.K. purchasing managers' index for the construction sector climbed to 64.6 in January from 62.1 in December.