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Oil nears $50/barrel on inventory data, boosting stocks
Oil prices climbed to just shy of $50 a barrel on Wednesday after a sharper-than-expected fall in crude inventories, lifting energy shares and world stock markets. Growing bets on a possible Federal Reserve rate increase as early as in June or July reduced demand for U.S. government debt. Investors' expectations for higher borrowing costs have risen since last week's minutes from the central bank's April meeting signaled a June increase was on the table. Comments from policymakers and upbeat U.S. economic data in recent days have supported those views. "What you're seeing is a recognition that this is going to ... (full story)