- WTI rose above $ 56 on Wednesday amid a cocktail of bullish developments.
- Although WTI is now back close to $ 55.50, it is still trading solid gains on the day and on the week.
El WTI rose for the third day in a row on Wednesday, rising from around the $ 55.00 mark during early European trading hours to $ 56.30 in the wake of the crude oil well opening at 2:00 p.m. GMT (which is often followed by higher volume). However, in recent trading, it appears that some have been making gains for a long time and the WTI has pulled back to approach $ 55.50.
Still, in the first month, WTI crude oil futures were up more than 1.5% and are trading well above 6.0% for the week. Needless to say, crude oil hit new 12-month highs on Wednesday and longer-term bulls will target January 2020 highs just below $ 66.00.
Bullish Inventory Report
WTI saw a significant rise following a bullish week EIA crude oil inventory report; As could be the case indicated by Tuesday’s weekly private API inventory release, major EIA crude oil stocks posted a surprise drop of 994,000 barrels versus expectations of a build of 446,000. Last week’s slide saw total U.S. crude oil reserves drop to 475.7 million barrels, its lowest level since March 2020.
Buffer stocks were also down 1.517 million barrels. Gasoline inventories, however, posted a much larger than expected increase of 4,466 million (expectations were for an increase of 1,134 million), but this was not enough to eliminate the bullish advantage of the report. Falling overall crude oil stocks, combined with a rebound in the weekly refinery utilization rate (up 0.6% weekly) points to a recovery in demand, market commentators argued.
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