Oil edged down today, coming off a more than 3 per cent rise in the previous session after a rally in Wall Street and financial stocks on the US plan to buy up distressed assets to tidy up bank balance sheets.
Improving risk appetite following new details on the US financial rescue plan, which have further weakened the dollar, helped push oil prices to their highest intraday level in 2009 yesterday and sent Asian stocks to their best level in two months today.
But demand fundamentals remained weak, making further price rises uncertain.
China's refined fuel stocks rose 11 per cent in February despite a sharp post-holiday rebound in domestic sales, media reported today, suggesting that demand in the world's No. 2 consumer may be weaker than thought.
US light crude for May delivery fell 18 cents to $53.62 a barrel by 0547 GMT, having settled at $53.80, up $1.73 on Monday.
London Brent crude was down 27 cents at $53.20.
Oil prices have climbed from under $33 last December due in part to aggressive supply cuts from Opec. But prices remain almost $100 below last summer's peak as the global economic crisis erodes consumption.
Reuters