DOE’s push NYMEX lower

With much of the Industry expecting large draws in Crude and distillates due to year end and a relatively cold week across the nation, the surprise build in distillates put immediate pressure across the pits.  With the Trade looking for some short term direction, it came in the way of Inventories.  Crude fell 1.25mbl vs estimates of a draw of 2.85mbl (bearish) Gasolines fell 2.3mbl vs estimates of a build of 1.5mbl (bullish) and Distillates increase 245k barrels vs estimate of a draw of 625k barrels (bearish).  With Bears taking two out of three it was enough to sink the Heating oil pit far enough down  making comeback towards the end of the day almost impossible.  Interestingly enough,  RBOB did make a comeback, after trading down over 3 cents the Front month was able to finish the day marginal positive.  Gasoline gained support with the jump in demand figures as well as the drop in jobless claims last week.  It will be interesting to see how Friday will play out as the focus again shifts to the economy and how much of an impact the northeast storm had on the historically large shopping day of after Christmas returns and gift card redemptions.    At the close Crude fell below the $90 mark dropping $1.28 to $89.84, RBOB added .0014 to $2.3918 and HEAT slipped .0361 to $2.4854