Oil futures mixed as focus turns to Fed
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Oil futures were mixed Tuesday as worries over Ukraine faded and attention turned to supply data and the start of a two-day meeting of Federal Reserve officials.
Nymex April WTI crude futures rose 21 cents, or 0.2%, to $98.29 a barrel. ICE May Brent crude futures went the other way, falling 19 cents, or 0.2%, to $106.05 a barrel.
'Forget Crimea and bring on the Fed. While Vladimir Putin mocks Obama it seems that the markets want to forget about those risks and focus on the Fed and whether or not Janet Yellen can be tougher than the president,' said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, in a note.
Putin on Tuesday moved to formally annex Crimea and delivered a speech to both houses of Russia's parliament dismissing sanctions and other threats by Western powers, while also saying he has no desire to split Ukraine.
The latter remarks buoyed equity markets, boosting European stocks and sending U.S. stock index futures higher. U.S. stocks opened with slight gains.
Oil futures maintained gains after economic data showed the consumer price index rose by 0.1% in February, matching forecasts. Separately, the Commerce Department said housing starts fell to an annual rate of 907,000 in February, while requests for new building permits climbed to the highest rate since October.
The Federal Reserve begins a two-day meeting Tuesday, with economists looking for another shift in the central bank's communication strategy, or forward guidance.
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Oil slumped on Monday as investors downplayed the likelihood of global supply disruptions as a result of turmoil surrounding Crimea.
The American Petroleum Institute is set to release its weekly data on crude-oil inventory at 4:30 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, while the U.S. Energy Information Administration is set to release its figures at 10:30 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday.
Analysts surveyed by energy-information firm Platts expect the data to show crude inventories rose by 2.6 million barrels in the week ended March 14.
In other energy trade, April natural gas futures fell 6 cents, or 1.3%, to $4.475 per million British thermal units.
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