Oil Prices Jump $2 and Retreat Quickly After EIA Inventories
Skerdian Meta•Wednesday, February 28, 2024•2 min read
Crude Oil prices went on a round trip in the US session, with WTI crude jumping $2, but retreating again after failing at the $80 resistance. Oil buyers made a strong entry around $78 as the price was finding support at the $200 SMA, but then turned into sellers as soon as the price approached the $80 level.
EIA Crude Oil Inventories
Despite crude oil inventories being higher than expected, they were lower than the private data released late yesterday, which showed a larger build of 8.428 million barrels. Additionally, gasoline inventories, which declined by -2.8 million barrels today, were less than the -3.272 million drawdown reported late yesterday.
As a result, crude oil is currently trading at $78.50s. The high price for the day extended to $79.62, while the low price was at $77.78. Overall, the market seems to be responding positively to the inventory data, despite the higher-than-expected build in crude oil stocks. So, it seems like $80 is a bit too much for Oil buyers.
EIA Crude Oil Inventory Report
Crude oil stocks increased by 4.2 million barrels to 447.16 million in total, surpassing the forecasted 2.7 million barrel increase.
Distillate stocks decreased by 510,000 barrels to 121.14 million, contrary to the expected 2.1 million barrel draw.
Gasoline inventories declined by 2.8 million barrels to 244.21 million, exceeding the anticipated 1.5 million barrel draw.
Crude exports fell by 237,000 barrels per day (BPD) to 4.73 million BPD.
Product demand over the previous four weeks was 19.48 million BPD, down 3.2% from the same period last year.
Net crude imports decreased by 32,000 BPD to 1.66 million BPD.
Product imports dropped by 888,000 BPD to 1.37 million BPD.
Heating oil inventories reduced by 137,000 barrels to 7.23 million.
Ethanol stocks increased by 520,000 barrels to 26.02 million barrels.
Crude inventories at Cushing rose by 1.46 million barrels to 30.97 million.
Ethanol production declined by 6,000 BPD to 1.08 million BPD.
Refinery utilization rose by 0.9% to 81.5%.
Private API Inventories from Yesterday
Overall, the data suggests mixed trends in crude oil and product inventories, with some categories experiencing unexpected changes compared to forecast.
Skerdian Meta Lead Analyst.
Skerdian is a professional Forex trader and a market analyst. He has been actively engaged in market analysis for the past 11 years. Before becoming our head analyst, Skerdian served as a trader and market analyst in Saxo Bank's local branch, Aksioner. Skerdian specialized in experimenting with developing models and hands-on trading. Skerdian has a masters degree in finance and investment.