Recovering from Monday’s stumble and buoyed by new government data anticipating a rise to $50 a barrel by next year, oil futures turned the corner on Tuesday to recoup recent losses, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
June West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $1.22, or 2.8%, to end trade at $44.66 a barrel.
July Brent crude on the London ICE Futures Exchange settled at $45.52 a barrel, gaining $1.89, or 4.3%.
“The market is dealing with a lot of moving parts here and traders are trying to weigh the near-term influences such as the fire in Canada and the uptick in political unrest in the Middle East against longer-term fundamentals like Saudi Arabia’s production plans and trends in U.S. output,” said Tyler Richey, co-editor of The 7:00’s Report.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration significantly adjusted its forecast for 2017 crude prices in its monthly report issued on Tuesday. The agency expects WTI to reach $50.65 a barrel next year – an increase of nearly 25% — in contrast with the EIA’s prior estimate.
June natural gas settled up by 6 cents, or 2.9%, to end trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange at $2.158 per million British thermal units.