Seasonally, expectations are for continued builds in inventories (following last week's biggest build in 6 months) but API reported a massive 3.8mm drawdown (against 2.1mm build expectations) sending WTI prices soaring. Distillates also saw a notable draw as Gasoline built modestly. Cushing saw the biggest draw since Feb 2014.
API
- Crude -3.8mm (+2.1mm exp)
- Cushing -1.96mm (-1.4mm exp)
- Gasoline +929k
- Distillates -2.3mm
As Bloomberg added, “We’ll see what happens with the weekly DOE’s. People will look for confirmation tomorrow about how much refining capacity is offline,” Sam Margolin, energy markets analyst at Cowen & Co., says by phon.
Despite Swiss commodity trading shop Gunvor's CEO comments that he "doubts prices can go much higher" sparking some early weakness, crude bounced to end the day up and hovering around the $50.70 level until API data struck sparking a kneejerk to the overnight highs above $51…
As Bloomberg reported, “People are stepping back and saying, what next? OPEC has to prove it’s really going to do something. They’ve talked the talk, now they’ve got to walk the walk,” Michael Hiley, head of OTC energy trading at New York-based LPS Futures, says by phone, adding "I wouldn’t be surprised to see us continue this choppy-type price action and go nowhere."
Charts: Bloomberg
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