2020.08.0419:49:00UTC+00Oil Futures Rebounds After Early Weakness, Settles Sharply Higher

Crude oil futures settled notably higher on Tuesday, with traders picking up positions ahead of inventory data, on hopes about a drop in stockpiles.

Last week's data from the Energy Information Administration had showed crude inventories in the U.S. to have dropped by as much as 10.6 million barrels, the largest so far in 2020.

West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September settled at $41.70 a barrel, gaining $0.69 or about 1.7% for the session.

Oil prices fell to a low of $40.14 a barrel early on in the session, weighed down by concerns about spikes in coronavirus cases in several countries and reports that many have decided to extend lockdown measures.

However, oil prices recovered from early lows and kept climbing higher as the day progressed.

Brent crude futures moved up $0.57 or about 1.3% to $44.72 a barrel.

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 18.1 million mark, while the deaths have increased to over 691,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University as of Tuesday morning.

As countries race to find a vaccine for Covid-19, the World Health Organization warned that there might never be a "silver bullet" for the new coronavirus.

The American Petroleum Institute's weekly oil report is due later today, while the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is scheduled to release its weekly inventory data Wednesday morning.