Oil rose

West Texas Intermediate crude rose for the first time in three days on speculation that distillate inventories fell last week amid cold weather and as U.S. equities advanced.

Prices gained as much as 1.3 percent. Distillate supplies, including diesel and heating oil, declined for a fourth week, according to a Bloomberg survey before a report from the Energy Information Administration tomorrow. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced, rebounding from the biggest loss since June.

“People are watching distillate inventories,” said Bill Baruch, a senior market strategist at Iitrader.com in Chicago. “That’s definitely going to be the major focus. The equity market is coming off the lows and that’s helping crude move higher.”

WTI for March delivery advanced 99 cents, or 1 percent, to $97.42 a barrel at 10:56 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.06 to $96.43 yesterday, the lowest close since Jan. 27. Trading volumes for all WTI contracts on the Nymex were about 1 percent below their 100-day averages.

Brent for March settlement slid 9 cents to $105.95 a barrel on the London-based ICE exchange. Volume was 16 percent below the 100-day average. The European benchmark’s premium to WTI was $8.53, down from $9.61 a barrel yesterday.