Oil Rises on Demand Optimism

Oil prices rose more than 1% on Wednesday after industry data showed a surprise drop in US crude inventories, suggesting demand is holding up despite steep interest rate hikes dampening global growth.
Brent crude futures rose $1.13, or 1.2%, to $95.78 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose $1.26, or 1.4%, to $89.63 a barrel, Money.usnews.com reported.
Both benchmark contracts rose about 2% in the previous session on a weaker US dollar and after an unverified note trending on social media said the Chinese government was going to consider ways to relax Covid rules from March 2023, potentially boosting demand in the world's second-largest oil user.
In a further positive sign for demand, data on Tuesday from the American Petroleum Institute showed crude oil stocks fell by about 6.5 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 28, according to market sources.
Eight analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected crude inventories to rise by 400,000 barrels.
At the same time, gasoline inventories fell more than expected, with stockpiles down by 2.6 million barrels compared with analysts' forecasts for a drawdown of 1.4 million barrels.
"Apart from the larger-than-expected draw in the US inventory data, the optimism from unconfirmed news of China’s zero-Covid exit also supported oil’s upside momentum," CMC Markets analyst Tina Teng said.