U. S. futures ended nearly 5 percent higher on Wednesday, rallying on government inventory data that showed an unexpectedly large drawdown in crude stocks last week. New York Mercantile Exchange natural gas futures, backed by some short covering after nine straight losing sessions, settled slightly higher on Wednesday, but fading storm concerns, record high inventories and sagging industrial demand continued to limit gains.

The EIA data showed crude stocks down 8.4 million barrels last week, to 343.6 million barrels, against the 1.3-million-build forecast in a poll of analysts.

U. S. crude imports fell by more than 1.4 million barrels per day in the week through Aug. 14 to 8.11 million bpd, their lowest level in more than 11 months, according to data from the U. S. Department of Energy released on Wednesday.

The National Hurricane Center said remnants of downgraded Ana had a less than 30 percent of becoming a tropical cyclone again during the next 48 hours.

U. S. gasoline stocks fell by 2.1 million barrels to 209.8 million barrels, EIA reported, eclipsing an expected 1.1 million barrel drop. Distillate inventories shed 700,000 barrels to total 161.6 million barrels, countering analysts' forecasts of a
600,000 barrel increase.

Crude oil witnessed a huge rise yesterday on the back of bullish inventory report. We expect that it may gain some more points following the surge in equity markets on the back of expected improvement in jobless claims numbers.