Oil heads for second weekly profit even as dollar hits two-week highs

Oil futures rose over one percent in American trade even as the dollar index hit early March highs, following earlier data from the US, the world's largest energy consumer. 

As of 05:47 GMT, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) April futures rose 1.67% to $62.21 a barrel from the opening of $61.19, while Brent futures due on May 15 added 1.40% to $66.03 a barrel from the opening of $65.12, as the dollar index rose 0.13% to 90.26 from the opening of 90.14. 

Earlier US data showed housing starts fell 7% in February to 1.236 million units, compared to January's 9.7% rise to 1.329 million, while analysts expected a 2.7% drop to 1.290 million. 

Building permits fell 5.7% to 1.298 million, compared to a 7.4% rise to 1.396 million in January, missing expectations of a 3.8% drop to 1.325 million, while industrial production rose 1.1% in February, compared to a 0.3% dip in February, revised from a 0.1% fall, while analysts expected a 0.3% rise. 

The Capacity Utilization Rate rose to 78.1% in February from 77.4% in January, revised from 77.5%, beating forecasts of 77.7%. 

University of Michigan released its survey on consumer confidence, showing a rise to 102.0 in March from 99.7 in February, beating expectations of 99.2. 

Earlier this week, the Energy Information Administration released its report on US crude inventories, showing a buildup of 5 million barrels in the week ending March 9, adding to the 2.4M increase in the previous reading, while analysts expected only a 2.2M buildup, with total stocks now reaching 430.9 million barrels, settling into the lower medium range on average in this time of year. 

Gasoline stocks fell 6.3 million barrels, while distillate stocks, including heating fuel fell 4.4 million barrels, also settling into the medium range on average in this time of year. 

The International Energy Agency released its new projections for the oil market on Thursday, raising global demand growth forecasts by 90 thousand bpd to 1.5 million bpd in 2018, while also raising demand on OPEC to 32.4 million bpd. 

The IEA expected output growth outside OPEC to steady at 1.8 million bpd, noting that US protectionism represents a risk to global growth and trade. 

Finally, the EIA expected the global oil market to witness a small surplus in the first quarter before registering a deficit throughout the rest of 2018. 

OPEC released its expectations for oil output, projecting an increase of 1.66 million bpd in 2018, compared to 1.4 million bpd in previous forecasts, while slightly raising demand growth forecasts to 1.6 million bpd from 1.59 million. 

OPEC reported a rise in OECD oil inventories by 13.7 million barrels in January, while Saudi Arabia pumped 9.935 million bpd in February, as Venezuelan's output tumbled to record lows at 1.586 million bpd.