NYMEX-Crude inches up; gains limited by Cyprus worries
TOKYO, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures edged up on Tuesday toward $94 a barrel, helped by strong U.S. employment data, but gains were limited by worries that a radical bailout plan in Cyprus could reignite the financial crisis in the euro zone.
FUNDAMENTALS
* NYMEX crude for April delivery, which expires on Wednesday, was up 7 cents at $93.81 a barrel by 0000 GMT, after settling up 29 cents at $93.74 on Monday.
It fell to a near one-week low of $91.76 on Monday, before recovering losses after government data showed that almost all U.S. states began 2013 with lower unemployment rates than they had at the start of 2012.
* London Brent crude for May delivery was down 7 cents at $109.44, after settling down 31 cents at $109.51 on Monday hurt by a strong dollar.
* Euro zone ministers urged Cyprus to let smaller savers escape a levy on bank deposits, before a parliamentary vote on Tuesday that will either secure the island's financial rescue or threaten default.
* U.S. commercial crude oil stockpiles are expected to have risen 2 million barrels last week amid low refinery runs, a preliminary Reuters poll of analysts showed on Monday.
U.S. distillate inventories likely fell 1.2 million barrels, while gasoline supplies are seen down 2.5 million barrels, the poll showed.
* The U.S. Senate on Monday inched closer to passage of a bill to fund federal agencies through Sept. 30 and avoid a government shutdown at the end of this month when existing money runs out.
* The number of Atlantic storms with magnitude similar to killer Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, could rise sharply this century, environmental researchers reported on Monday.
* In Libya, armed clashes broke out at an oil field belonging to Libya's Waha Oil on Monday, where protesters seeking jobs had been blocking the site entrance for the last eight days.
MARKETS NEWS
* U.S. stocks fell on Monday hurt by the Cypriot bailout proposal.
* The euro tumbled to a more than three-month low against the U.S. dollar on Monday.
DATA/EVENTS
* The following data is expected on Tuesday: (Time in GMT)
- 0800 Launch of OECD Economic Survey
- 1000 Germany ZEW economic sentiment
- 1145 U.S. ICSC chain stores
- 1230 U.S. Housing starts Feb
- 1255 U.S. Redbook
- N/A U.S. FOMC begins first day of two-day meeting
- 2030 U.S. American Petroleum Institute weekly oil data
(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Richard Pullin)