U.S. Oil up on stocks draw; Nickel at 2-month high

Reuters - Crude oil prices jumped on Wednesday after a sharper-than-expected drop in U.S. crude stockpiles, and nickel prices hit 2-month highs, extending this week's bullish streak on supply concerns driven by an Indonesian export ban.

Aluminium and cotton were other major gainers of the day in commodities, rallying on concerns over tightening supplies. Several agricultural commodities were weaker, with wheat , sugar, coffee and corn all falling, dominating losses.

The Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity Index, a sector bellwether, rose 0.4 percent after gains in 10 of the 19 commodities tracked by the index. U.S. crude oil, the CRB's heaviest-weighted component, settled up 1.7 percent at $94.17 a barrel after hitting a near two-week high at $94.64.

The run-up came after data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed domestic crude oil stocks fell 7.7 million barrels last week, bringing the total draw over the last seven weeks to 41.2 million barrels.

Traders attributed much of the inventory drop to higher demand for fuels such as diesel and heating oil as frigid weather across the eastern United States kept people indoors and away from driving. Gasoline inventories surged, adding proof to the theory.

"This is a weather-related (inventory) report," said Mark Waggoner, president at Excel Futures, an oil broker in Bend, Oregon. "People just weren't driving - they were sitting at home."

London's Brent crude, which is a benchmark for global oil prices but is not included in the CRB, rose 74 cents or 0.7 percent to settle at $107.13 a barrel.

Nickel, a component of stainless steel, closed up 1.4 percent, bringing its gains over the past four sessions to more than 8 percent after a ban on unprocessed ore exports by Indonesia came into force.

Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange fell to a session low at $14,224 a tonne before recovering to a high of $14,622, its highest since early November. The contract closed up $195 at $14,535 a tonne. Some traders said the gains are likely to be capped by
weakness in the stainless steel market and ample ore stockpiles in China.

"There is ongoing softness in the stainless market, while on the raw material side, the Chinese have been stockpiling nickel ores for months now and are not necessarily scrambling to cover their needs," said Ed Meir, an analyst at INTL FCStone.
    <span 1.6em;"="">Prices at 4:42 p.m. EDT (2142 GMT)      

                                 LAST/        NET    PCT
                               CLOSE      CHG    CHG
US crude                94.32       1.73     1.9%
Brent crude         106.99       0.60     0.6%
Natural gas           4.325   -0.044    -1.0%
                                                          
US gold             1238.30     -7.10    -0.6%
Gold                   1240.81     -3.90    -0.3%
US Copper              3.36      0.02       0.7%
LME Copper     7352.50    72.50      1.0%
Dollar                  81.004     0.342      0.4%
CRB                  277.845     1.072      0.4%
                                                          
US corn               425.75    -5.75     -1.3%
US soybeans   1318.00    11.00     0.8%
US wheat            567.75   -11.50    -2.0%
                                                          
US Coffee            117.20    -2.00    -1.7%
US Cocoa         2748.00    -4.00     -0.1%
US Sugar              15.23     -0.26    -1.7%
                                                          
US silver             20.134   19.931    1.6%
US platinum     1427.10     -4.80     0.0%
US palladium     744.00      5.10     0.7%