World oil prices rallied this week, supported by a drop in US stockpiles, while traders on the metals markets took their lead from movements in the dollar and Chinese data.
Crude futures rallied as data showed a much bigger than expected drop in US crude inventories, while OPEC said demand would pick up. Oil prices had surged more than two dollars on Tuesday, on expectations that the US inventory data would reveal a drop.
The Department of Energy indeed said that commercial stockpiles of US crude slumped by 6.8 million barrels last week to 470.6 million.