Ahead Of The Bell: Crude Stocks Expected To Rise

NEW YORK (AP) — The Energy Department will likely report a 900,000 barrel build in crude-oil reserves on Wednesday for the week ended Oct. 23, according to a survey by Platts, the energy-information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

The Energy Information Administration releases its weekly report at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Platts also expects gasoline stockpiles to decline by 1 million barrels, distillate stocks to fall by 1.1 million barrels and refinery utilization to increase 0.7 percentage point to 81.8 percent.

A reading above or below estimates can influence market trading.

Last Wednesday, the EIA said for the week ended Oct. 16 crude inventories rose by 1.3 million barrels to 339.1 million barrels; gasoline inventories fell by 2.3 million barrels to 206.9 million barrels; and distillate inventories fell by 800,000 barrels to 169.9 million barrels.

Last week's crude-oil figure fell short of the build of 2.2 million barrels analysts expected.

After that report, benchmark crude prices increased 39 cents to 79.51 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.