| GEO Business | | Oil prices mixed ahead of US reserves data | Updated at: 0333 PST, Wednesday, April 22, 2009
 NEW YORK: Oil prices were mixed Tuesday as investors paused from steep falls the previous day and worried about demand in the United States ahead of a key weekly report on energy stockpiles.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for May delivery, climbed 63 cents to 46.21 dollars a barrel. The contract expired at the close.
The New York contract for June delivery edged four cents higher to settle at 48.55 dollars a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in June slipped four cents to close at 49.82 dollars.
The New York contract had plunged 4.45 dollars, or nearly nine percent, Monday, hitting an intraday one-month low at 43.83 dollars.
The oil market Monday had tracked a stock sell off on Wall Street as renewed jitters about the banking sector and the overall economic outlook sent investors scurrying to lock in gains from a six-week rally.
"It's following the stock market once again," Phil Flynn at Alaron Trading said of the New York futures contract.
"There could be some selling because of expectations of another build of (US) inventories, but at the end of the day, we are just following the stock market," he said. |  |
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