Oil Futures Score a Third Straight Session Of Gains

Oil futures finished higher on Wednesday, rising for a third session in a row. After falling in the immediate wake of weekly U.S. government data showing a 10.4 million-barrel climb in crude inventories, prices turned higher, buoyed by the fall in domestic output and expectations for further production declines. "The fundamentals remain poor, but sentiment is a bit more focused upon the future, for now," said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Seaport Global Securities. April West Texas Intermediate crude rose 26 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $34.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, holding ground at the highest levels since early January.