Crude oil futures mixed

Tokyo

Oil futures rose in Asian trading on Wednesday but gains were limited and U.S. crude traded sideways in advance of the release of official weekly inventory figures later in the day.

Brent crude LCOc1 was up 18 cents at $46.84 a barrel at 0349 GMT. On Tuesday, the contract settled down 30 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $46.66 barrel.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was up 4 cents at $44.69 a barrel, after initially trading higher then falling. It fell 59 cents, or 1.3 percent, to settle at $44.65 in the previous session. The front-month August contract will expire at the end of Wednesday's session.

Crude is "looking rather trepidative ahead of another weekly inventory report, while dollar strength is also helping to put the kibosh on a rally," Matt Smith, an analyst at oil cargo tracker and energy data provider ClipperData, said in a blog post.