Poor U.S. corporate results, rising crude inventories and OPEC output cut kept crude oil prices near $40.

Oil prices languished below $40 a barrel Tuesday in Asia even as investors looked to a massive U.S. stimulus package as a possible tonic for flagging crude demand.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery rose 42 cents to $39.98 a barrel by afternoon in Singapore on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 61 cents overnight to settle at $39.56.

Fourth quarter U.S. corporate earnings have mostly been dismal and more companies reported last Wednesday that plunging consumer demand is hurting their profits.

Oil inventories jumped 7.2million barrels from the previous week to 346.1million, according to an Energy information administration report on Wednesday. Crude supplies are running at a surplus of 50.3million barrels from the same period last year.

“The inventory numbers are quite a negative sign”, said Christoffer Moltke-Leth, head of sales trading at Saxo capital markets Singapore.

We are seeing OPEC follow through with their supply cuts and that’s having an impact else crude oil would be about $10 lower right now without any OPEC cuts”, said Kornafel.

In London, the March Brent contract rose 40 cents to $46.42 on the ICE Futures exchange.