By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - U.S. crude stockpiles fell less than expected last week and product inventories including gasoline jumped pointing to weaker fuel demand, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute released Tuesday.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $81.27 barrel on the news, after settling up 3.5% at $83.72 a barrel.
U.S. crude inventories fell by about 1.0 million barrels for the week ended Jan.7. That compared with a draw of 6.4 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a draw of about 2.0 million barrels.
The API data also showed that gasoline inventories increased by 11 million barrels last week, and distillate stocks increased by 3.0 million barrels.
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 1.9 million barrels last week.