By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- U.S. crude oil inventories unexpectedly increased last week, but gasoline stocks continued to slide stoking worries that unprecedented pain at the pump for Americans hitting the road is unlikely to end soon.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $118.88 per barrel following the report after settling down $2 at $118.93 per barrel.
U.S. crude inventories increased by about 736,000 barrels for the week ended June 9. That compared with a build of 1.8 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a decrease of about 1.2 million barrels.
The API data also showed that gasoline inventories fell by 2.2 million barrels last week, while distillate stocks increased by about 234,000 barrels.
The average price of gas topped $5 a gallon in the U.S., AAA data showed
The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly U.S. crude supplies fell by about 1.3 million barrels last week.