Oil futures fell on Wednesday, with U.S. prices settling below $50 a barrel for the first time since early April after a weekly report from the U.S. government showed that crude supplies unexpectedly rose.

But the data also showed that gasoline stockpiles fell and implied-gasoline demand over the past four weeks showed a jump compared with a year ago. Separately, growth in China’s oil demand remained strong in June. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery settled at $49.19 a barrel, down $1.67, or 3.3%. Prices, which traded at $49.98 before the supply data, settled at their lowest level since April 2. September Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 91 cents, or 1.6%, to $56.13 a barrel.

On Nymex, “with crude oil closing under $50, this should be its new resistance level as prices continue to sell off,” John Macaluso, an analyst at Tyche Capital Advisors. Early Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a climb of 2.5 million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended July 17. Analysts polled by Platts forecast a crude-stock fall of 1.9 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute Tuesday said supplies climbed by 2.3 million barrels, according to sources. With the dollar stronger and inventories at the delivery hub at Cushing, Okla. increasing, “we believe we could see [WTI] prices fall to the mid to low 40’s in a month’s time frame,” said Macaluso. Thomas Pugh, commodities economist at Capital Economics, attributed the surprise crude-supply increase to a “surge in imports, which reached the highest level since early April.” The EIA said U.S. crude imports averaged over 7.9 million barrels a day last week, up 587,000 barrels a day.

The data also showed, however, that motor gasoline supplied over the last four weeks, which is an indication of demand, averaged 9.6 million barrels a day—that is up 6.9% from the same time a year ago. Gasoline supplies fell 1.7 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles, which include heating oil, tacked on 200,000 barrels last week, according to the EIA. Analysts surveyed by Platts expected gasoline stocks to be unchanged for the week, and distillate inventories to rise by 1.9 million barrels.