Crude-oil futures were trading slightly higher in Asia Wednesday, keeping pace with most regional equity markets on the back of hopes for economic stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve and a similar policy move in Europe.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded at $84.16 a barrel at 0628 GMT, up $0.13 in the Globex electronic session. August Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.22 to $95.98 a barrel.

There were growing hopes that the Fed's two-day policy meeting, which ends late Wednesday, will result in further stimulus in the U.S., while European leaders, meeting at the Group of 20 summit in Mexico, vowed to start integrating their banking system, hoping to assuage concerns over the continent's ongoing debt crisis.

Oil market sentiment remains subdued due to weak global demand amid the global economic slowdown. "Nearby August Brent futures have established a discount against deferred futures all the way out into next year, with this newly acquired contango sending off some very strong bearish vibes suggestive of further slippage in European refinery demand for barrels," Jim Ritterbusch at Ritterbusch and Associates said in a note.

Market participants also are looking for cues from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly report on the nation's oil inventories, slated to be released at 1430 GMT.

According to estimates from 12 analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, U.S. crude-oil stockpiles fell by a million barrels in the week ended June 15. The consensus estimate saw gasoline stocks rising by 400,000 barrels and distillate stocks, including heating oil and diesel fuel, rising 700,000 barrels. Refiners are expected to keep operations unchanged from the week-earlier level of 92% of capacity.

Meanwhile, the market seems to have largely ignored the failure of negotiations between Iran and world powers over Tehran's nuclear program, which paves the way for implementations of Europe's oil embargo and U.S. central bank sanctions as planned, JPMorgan analysts said in a note. "Iranian imports could arguably bring actual OPEC production substantially below the call on its crude, resulting in larger inventory draws than markets currently expect."

Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for July--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 81 points to $2.6496 a gallon, while July heating oil traded at $2.6458, 107 points higher.

ICE gasoil for July changed hands at $847.50 a metric ton, up $2.50 from Tuesday's settlement.

Write to Gurdeep Singh at gurdeep.singh@dowjones.com

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