Crude oil prices are lower Wednesday morning amid worries about a fall in demand due to a slow down in China and a likely rise in U.S. oil inventories.
Crude futures for May delivery are down $0.57 or 0.58 percent at $99.17 a barrel, coming off an early high of $99.82 a barrel.
Crude oil for May delivery ended down $1.84 or 1.8 percent at $99.74 a barrel on Tuesday, its first close below $100 in a week.
The data from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday evening showed U.S. crude oil inventories to have risen by over 5.8 million barrels in the week ended March 28, beating forecasts for an increase of 5.3 million barrels.
The official data from Energy Information Administration on crude stockpiles for the week ended March 28 is due for release at 10.30 AM.
Natural Gas for May is down $0.037 or 0.88 percent at $4.239 per million btu.
Besides the data on crude inventories, investors are looking ahead to data on U.S. factory orders for February and the report on New York business conditions from the Institute for Supply Management.
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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.