Investing.com - U.S. oil futures rebounded from the previous day’s losses on Tuesday, as market players awaited key U.S. weekly supply data to gauge the strength of oil demand from the world’s largest consumer.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in March traded at USD92.40 a barrel during European morning trade, up 0.4%. New York-traded oil futures held in a tight range between USD91.74 a barrel and USD92.42 a barrel.
The March contract settled 1.01% lower on Monday to end at USD92.01 a barrel. Nymex oil futures were likely to find support at USD91.47 a barrel, the low from January 9 and resistance at USD93.56 a barrel, the high from January 10.
The American Petroleum Institute will release its inventories report later in the day, while Wednesday’s government report could show crude stockpiles rose by 0.5 million barrels in the week ended January 10.
Investors also looked ahead to key U.S. economic data later Tuesday for further indications on the future course of U.S. monetary policy. The U.S. is set to release data on retail sales for December as well as reports on import prices and business inventories later Tuesday.
Market players have closely been looking out for U.S. data reports recently to gauge if they will strengthen or weaken the case for the Federal Reserve to scale back stimulus.
Data on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added just 74,000 jobs in December, the smallest increase since January 2011 and well below expectations for 196,000 new jobs.
The unemployment rate fell to a five-year low of 6.7% last month from 7% in November, but this was due in part to people dropping out of the labor force. The labor participation rate fell to an almost 35-year low of 62.8%.
Despite the dismal data, Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart voiced his support of further tapering to the one already announced in December on Monday. The central bank is scheduled to meet January 28-29 to review the economy and assess policy.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil futures for February delivery inched up 0.1% to trade at USD106.08 a barrel, while the spread between the Brent and U.S. crude contracts stood at USD13.68 a barrel.