2019.08.2106:24:00UTC+00Oil Prices Jump Over 1% On API Inventory Data

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, with Brent crude futures rising above $60 a barrel for the first time in over a week, after industry data showed a larger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude inventories.

Benchmark Brent crude rose by 84 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $60.86 a barrel, after having settled half a percent higher on Tuesday. U.S. crude futures were up 59 cents, or 1.05 percent, at $56.72 a barrel.

Data from the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday that U.S. crude oil stocks fell by 3.5 million barrels to 439.8 million in the week ended August 16. Analysts had expected a decline of 1.9 million barrels.

Gasoline inventories fell by 403,000 for the week, while distillate inventories were up by 1.806 million barrels.

Official data from the Energy Information Administration is due later in the day, with analysts expecting a drop of 1.889 million barrels last week.

Amid heightened risks to the global growth outlook, investors await the Fed's July policy meeting minutes later in the day and a speech by Fed chairman Jerome Powell at an annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday for further direction.

Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off U.S. President Donald Trump's anti-China rhetoric. Trump said on Tuesday that he had to confront China over trade even if it caused short-term harm to the U.S. economy "because Beijing had been cheating Washington for decades".