The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories rose by 0.594 million barrels in the week ended April 16, following a drop of 5.889 million barrels in the previous week. Economists had forecast a draw of 2.975 million barrels.

At the same time, gasoline stocks edged up 0.086 million barrels, while analysts had expected a build of 0.464 million barrels. Distillate stocks dropped by 1.074 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decrease of 0.956 million barrels.

Meanwhile, oil production in the U.S. remained unchanged at 11.000 million barrels a day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.4 million barrels per day last week, down by 448,000 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.

FXStreet notes that gold has set a base above $1755/65 after retesting long-term support at $1682/71. Strategists at Credit Suisse expect XAU/USD to rise towards the $1835 mark.

“Gold has retested and again held key support at $1682/71 - the 38.2% retracement of the entire 2015/2020 bull market and the recent and June 2020 lows - and the subsequent break above $1755/65 has seen a near-term ‘double bottom’ base established.”

“We look for a recovery back to $1835, potentially the 200-day average and downtrend at $1857/83, but with a fresh cap expected here for now.”