Oil edges higher alongside equities

By Ayenat Mersie

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil edged up on Tuesday, supported by a recovery in the equities market, but still struggled to shake off Monday's decline, the biggest one-day percentage drop in almost a year.

Brent crude futures were up 51 cents at $68.15 a barrel by 1 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Tuesday. This followed a nearly 4 percent drop in Brent prices on Monday, the largest since June.

Brent had risen to $71 a barrel last week, close to its highest this year.

West Texas Intermediate futures rose 53 cents to $63.54 a barrel.

"There's not really one catalyst for crude being up today," said John Macaluso, analyst at Tyche Capital Advisors. The gains were in part the result of a technical rebound from Monday's losses, as well as a recovery in the equities market, Macaluso said.

Wall Street's main indexes were higher on Tuesday as technology and consumer discretionary stocks recovered from Monday's sharp selloff. All 11 major S&P sectors were higher, and 29 of the 30 Dow components were up by midday.

Also lending support was Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak's comments on Tuesday that a joint organization for cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC countries may be set up once the current deal on oil output curbs expires at the end of this year.

However, an expected increase in U.S. crude inventories limited price gains.

U.S. crude inventories, widely viewed as a litmus test of the broader trend in global inventories, are expected to have risen by 1.7 million barrels in the week to March 30, according to a Reuters poll.

The American Petroleum Institute releases its weekly inventory data later on Tuesday and the U.S. government releases its figures on Wednesday.

There is also an element of seasonality at play, said Walter Zimmerman, chief technical analyst at United-ICAP. "Yesterday was a little more dramatic than might typically be the case, but it's entirely in keeping with seasonal peaking risk that the month of April brings to crude oil," he said.

Also weighing on the market is speculative length, after money managers last week raised their bullish bets on crude.

"With excessive hedge fund positions still looming over the market, profit-taking should weigh on oil prices over the coming weeks," Julius Baer head of commodities and macro research Norbert Ruecker said.

Prices for physical barrels of oil in the North Sea are around their lowest since last June, as extensive refinery maintenance across the region eats into demand.

(Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London, Meng Meng in Beijing and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; editing by Tom Brown and Rosalba O'Brien)