U.S. crude oil inventories up last week: API

HOUSTON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported an increase of 1.7 million barrels of crude oil in the U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending Feb. 28.

API reported an increase of 1.3 million barrels of crude oil inventories for the previous week ending Feb. 21.

Oil prices settled mixed on Tuesday after the U.S. central bank's interest-rate cut.

The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery settled 0.43 U.S. dollar higher at 47.18 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for May delivery fell 0.04 dollar to settle at 51.86 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.