Oil slips after climbing to 2-month highs; U.S. stockpile data ahead

NEW YORK, August 1, 2017 – Oil prices turned lower on Tuesday, after climbing to a two-month high overnight, as investors looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products.

Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report at 4:30PM ET (2030GMT). Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around 2.9 million barrels.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude September contract was at $49.84 a barrel by 8:15AM ET (1215GMT), down 31 cents, or around 0.6%. It touched its highest since May 25 at $50.43 earlier in the session.

Elsewhere, Brent oil for October delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London shed 44 cents, or around 0.8%, to $52.28 a barrel, after climbing to a more than two-month high of $52.93 earlier.

Oil prices finished higher for the sixth session in a row on Monday, closing out July with the biggest monthly percentage gain since April 2016, as investors cheered signs that the global market was starting to rebalance.

The U.S. benchmark advanced around 9% last month, while Brent notched a monthly gain of roughly 10%.

Sentiment has been boosted amid fresh pledges from Saudi Arabia and Nigeria to respectively pull back on exports and output.

Prices got an additional lift from declining U.S. oil inventories and signs of a possible slowdown in U.S. shale production.

Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for September was down 0.7 cents, or roughly 0.5%, to $1.669 a gallon, while September heating oil lost 0.9 cents to $1.658 a gallon.

Natural gas futures for September delivery rose 1.1 cents, or 0.4%, to $2.805 per million British thermal units, bouncing back from a loss of around 5% on Monday.

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