Crude oil futures inched slightly higher Thursday morning, reclaiming $98 a barrel after seeing big losses earlier in the week.
Crude for April was up 50 cents at $98.50 a barrel ahead of this morning's U.S. retail trade figures for February. Prices touches $97.80 overnight, the lowest since January.
After strong gains in February, crude futures started March at a yearly peak near $105 a barrel but have since turned sharply lower.
Dwindling demand from China and the possibility of a U.S. slowdown have weighed on oil prices.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 6.2 million barrels in the week ended March 7, well above market expectations for a 2.2-million barrel increase.
Traders this morning will get some first-tier U.S. data in the form of February's retail sales.
Analysts expect retail sales to show a recovery from January's weak results. An increase of 0.2 percent is expected when retail sales are reported at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Natural gas prices continued to level off after hitting a multi-year high in February. Nat gas for April was down 1.45 percent at $4.42 per million btu despite lingering winter conditions in parts of the U.S.
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Market Analysis
May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.