Oil Falls After Stronger Inventories Reported

West Texas Intermediate crude fell for the second time in three days after industry data showed fuel supplies increased in the U.S., the world’s largest oil consumer. Brent was little changed in London.

Futures dropped as much as 0.9 percent in New York. Gasoline and distillate inventories each expanded by 400,000 barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute was said to report yesterday. Government data today is forecast to show stockpiles of the motor fuel shrank by 1.4 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg News survey. WTI’s moving averages have formed a “death cross,” a bearish chart signal.

“The API figures indicate a rise in stockpiles at the end of driving season,” Thina Saltvedt, an Oslo-based analyst at Nordea Bank AB, said today by telephone. “The market has reacted and is now waiting to see what the weekly inventories will show.”

WTI for October delivery slid as much as 89 cents to $94.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $95 at 1:09 p.m. London time. The contract climbed 2.9 percent to $95.54 yesterday, the biggest gain since August 2013. The volume of all futures traded was about 6 percent below the 100-day average. Prices have decreased 3.5 percent this year.

Brent for October settlement fell 9 cents to $102.68 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It advanced 2.4 percent yesterday. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $7.68 to WTI, compared with $7.23 yesterday.

via Bloomberg

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.