Crude Prices were seen trading higher on Tuesday, with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) trading towards a six-week high. While market participants focus on the Fed’s chairwoman Janet Yellen’s first testimony on the monetary policy before the Congress later today.
Analysts are also expecting the US stockpiles data from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday, with forecasts of a decline in distillate inventories, including heating oil and diesel by 2.13 million barrels in previous week.
According to the US National Weather Service, a cold winter storm is expected to spread snow across the southern region of the country.
The WTI crude oil for March delivery added 0.29% to $100.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at the time of writing, while the Brent crude for March settlement climbed 0.33% to $108.99 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
The European benchmark Brent crude was at a premium of $8.62 to WTI.
The Federal Reserve’s (Fed) new Governor Janet Yellen is expected to give her speech and deliver her first semi-annual monetary policy testimony before the House Financial Services Committee later in the day and the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. Market analysts are expecting a dovish testimony from Janet Yellen which could benefit the oil market.
“We see no reasons why Chairman Yellen will front-run the FOMC in March, especially while waiting for the outcome of one more jobs report for additional clarity on the underlying trend in labour markets,” JP Morgan analysts wrote in a note.
Oil traders also keeping an eye on the American Petroleum (API) report which is due later in the day and the additional government report s on Wednesday which is forecasted to show a rise in crude inventories by 2.6 million in the week ended February 7.
However distillate stockpiles are predicted to have dropped for a fifth week by 2.3 million barrels. Gasoline supplies are expected to have declined by 250,000 barrels.
The continuous four-week gain in the North American crude was primarily driven by the extreme cold weather in the US, increasing the demand for energy.
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