The US Energy Information Administration reported today that crude inventories fell 400K barrels to 484.7 million during the past week, while analysts forecast a drop by 4.1 million barrels.

Gasoline stocks rose 400K barrels to 236.2 million barrels, and distillate stocks fell 1.7 million to 134.4 million barrels.

While the American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories fell 2.5 million barrels during the same period.

Nickel prices fell on Wednesday, as the US dollar rose against its peers, despite expectations of a shortage in the global supply of several industrial metals.

Nickel was lifted recently expectations of a shortage in the global supply during 2021, in tandem with improved demand as economies gradually recover from the coronavirus pandemic impact.

The metal is widely used in the steel industry and was picked by electric vehicle companies thanks to its potential in the manufacture of batteries.

Most international financial institutions forecast that the global economy will grow by 6% this year.

The dollar index fell against a basket of major currencies by 0.3% to 90.4 points as of 13:54 GMT, after hitting a high of 90.6 points and a low of 90.1 points.

As of 13:55 GMT, nickel spot future contracts fell 1.8% to $17,749.7 per tonne.

US stock indices opened lower on Wednesday, after the release of inflation data, which has contributed in lifting the US Treasury bond yields.

President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis James Bullard projected yesterday that the US inflation rate will rise above the Fed's target of 2% during 2022.

The US Treasury yields rose above 1.671% today, which weighs down on US stocks.

Data showed that the US consumer price index rose 0.8% in April, beating forecasts of a rise by 0.2%, and the core reading for the same index (excluding energy and food prices) rose by 0.9% in April, higher than forecasts of 0.3%.

As for stocks, Dow Jones fell 0.5% or 187 points to 34,081as of 14:10 GMT, Nasdaq fell 1.3% or 170 points to 13,220, and S&P 500 fell 0.7% or 30 points to 4,121.

The US dollar held against most of its rivals on Tuesday, following the comments of several Fed members.

President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis James Bullard said that it is still early to talk about scaling back the Fed's easy policy stance, and projected that the inflation rate to rise above the Fed's target of 2% during 2022.

Data showed that the US house prices index rose 16.2% to an average of $319.2 during the first quarter of 2021, the highest quarterly jump ever.

The World Health Organization declared the new mutated variant of the Covid-19 virus in India, which caused a lot of concern around the world.

"If you're receiving unemployment benefits and you're offered a suitable job, you can't refuse that job and just keep getting unemployment benefits," US President Joe Biden stated after blames that his offer to expand unemployment benefit was reflected in last week's disappointing jobs report.

This came following the release of the US monthly jobs report last week, which showed less than expected added new jobs during April, while the unemployment rate rose unexpectedly.

The dollar index fell against a basket of currencies by less than 0.1% to 90.1 points as of 19:23 GMT, after it hit a high of 90.3 points and a low of 89.9 points.