By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Oil was up Wednesday morning in Asia, holding gains as the latest U.S. crude oil supply data showed a bigger-than-expected draw. As the holidays approach, trading volumes also start to decrease.

By 11:13PM ET (4:13 GMT) the price had edged up 0.18 to $74.11 and went up by 0.37% to $71.38 Futures ended 3.7% higher Tuesday in New York, rallying along with other financial assets. After a slump of two days.

The week ending Dec. 17 saw a draw in excess of 3.67million barrels. Investing.com’s forecasts predicted a draw at 2.633million barrels, and an 815,000 barrel draw the week before.

API data indicated that U.S. gasoline inventories increased by 3.7M barrels last Week, while crude inventories in Cushing (the key storage hub) rose by 1.27 Million barrels and distillate supplies declined.

Investors await the announcement, expected later today.

In Asia Pacific, Ning Jizhe, deputy head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, that the government would work to aid economic growth, including stepping up government spending, strengthening support to manufacturers, and stabilizing industry supply chains.

Ning stated that the world’s largest oil importer would try to stabilize its economic operations during the first quarter, first half and the entire year.

Boris Johnson (British Prime Minister) stated that new COVID-19 restrictions would not be introduced before Christmas, but warned that they may become necessary after. Scott Morrison, his Australian counterpart, ruled out locking down earlier in the day and instead encouraged people to take booster shots.