By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. crude stockpiles rose more than expected last week, while gasoline supplies dropped sharply at a time when demand is expected to remain elevated.
West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark traded at $80.59 a barrel on the news, after settling up 0.25% at $80.44 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories increased by 5.2 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 8. That compared with a build of 951,000 barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a build of about 140,000 barrels.
The API also showed that gasoline inventories fell by about 4.6 million last week, and distillate stocks declined by about 2.7 million barrels.
The official government inventory report due Thursday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies increased by about 702,000 barrels last week.