The US Energy Information Administration reported today that crude inventories rose 100K barrels to 493.1 million during the past week, while analysts forecast a drop by 200K barrels.

Gasoline stocks rose 0.1 million to 235.1 million barrels, and distillate stocks fell 3.3 million to 139 million barrels.

While the American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories rose 4.3 million barrels during the same period.

Most US stock indices edged up on Wednesday, amid anticipation of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision.

Several US companies continued to report their quarterly earnings results for the first quarter, as Alphabet and Microsoft unveiled theirs yesterday, which showed better than expected profits and revenues thanks to the performance of their cloud computing branches.

The Federal Reserve will unveil its interest rate decision later today, which is expected to be held unchanged between 0.0% and 0.25%, and Fed Chief Jerome Powell will hold a press conference afterwards.

The US Goods Trade Balance index showed a deficit of $90.58 billion last month, which is the highest monthly level ever.

As for stocks, Dow Jones fell 0.4% or 131 points to 33,861 as of 13:58 GMT, Nasdaq rose 0.1% or 16 points to 14,106, and S&P 500 rose 0.2% or 9 points to 4,196.

Oil prices turned higher as the US market opened on Wednesday, to head for the second straight daily gain, ahead of the US Energy Information Administration's official report later today.

US crude rose 0.8% to $63.59 a barrel, after opening at $63.07, and hit a low at $62.70, and Brent crude rose 0.6% to $66.98 a barrel, after opening at $66.56, and hit a low of $66.14.

US crude gained 1.8% yesterday, and Brent crude futures rose 1.3%, in their third gain out of 4 days, thanks to demand hopes in the US and Europe.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories rose 4.3 million barrels during the week ending April 23, missing forecasts of a rise by 0.5 million barrels.

While the US Energy Information Administration's official data will be released later today, amid forecasts for inventories to drop by 0.9 million barrels.

The OPEC-Plus coalition decided on Wednesday to proceed with the gradual increase of oil production that was approved during the last meeting in early April.

Starting next May, the decision includes a hike of 1.15 million barrels per day distributed over 3 months, with an increase of 350,000 bpd in May, a similar increase in June, and 450,000 bpd in July.

Based on this decision, the current output cut will be reduced by 7.2 million barrels in April to 6.85 million barrels in May, and to 6.5 million barrels in June, and then to nearly 6 million barrels in July.

Saudi Arabia also stated that during that period it would also ease its 1 million bpd voluntary cut, and its production will increase by 250,000 barrels in May, then by 350,000 barrels in June, and by 400,000 barrels in July.

Gold prices fell on Wednesday, to deepen losses for the second straight day, as the US Treasury bonds yields rallied ahead of the US the Federal Reserve's decisions.

Gold prices fell 0.75% to the lowest since April 20 at $1,763.40 an ounce, after opening at $1,776.58, and hit a high of $1,777.08.

Gold closed lower by 0.2% yesterday, in the third loss in 4 days, due to the recovery of the US Treasury bond yields.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose 1.5% to a 2-week high at 1.65%, which weighs down on market's risk appetite.

This comes as investors' expectations about the US inflation jumped to the highest level since 2013, ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions.

At 18:00 GMT, the US Federal Reserve will unveil its rate decision and monetary policy, and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 18:30 GMT.

The meeting is expected to provide more clues about the pace of the US inflation and the future of interest rates following the latest developments of the pandemic.

Gold stocks at the SPDR ETF remained unchanged yesterday, with a total at 1,021.70 metric tonnes.