After trending lower over the past several sessions, the price of crude oil showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Thursday.
Crude for April delivery spiked $1.44 or 2.0 percent to $75.39 a barrel on the day, snapping a six-session losing streak.
"It looks like oil has been beaten up enough," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. "Crude has been forming a range between the $73 to $83 region and that should hold up, with the risks being to the upside."
The notable rebound by the price of crude oil came even though the Energy Information Administration released a report showing a much bigger than expected increase in U.S. crude oil inventories.
The EIA said crude oil inventories surged by 7.6 million barrels in the week ended February 17th compared to economist estimates for an increase of 2.1 million barrels.
The report said distillate fuel inventories also jumped by 2.7 million barrels, while gasoline inventories fell by 1.9 million barrels.
