Oil Prices Edge Higher Ahead of U.S. Inventory Data

Oil prices rose modestly in Asian trading Tuesday as the market remained broadly range-bound ahead of U.S. inventory data and the expiry of the January West Texas Intermediate contract.

--January light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently up 0.2% at $57.31 a barrel in the Globex trading session. February Brent rose 0.1% to $63.49.

--Prices may remain range-bound going into the holiday season unless U.S. inventory data the next 36 hours from the American Petroleum Institute or the Energy Information Administration surprise the market.

Write to Lucy Craymer at lucy.craymer@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 18, 2017 22:40 ET (03:40 GMT)