The Bears Have It - EIA Report Slashes Tuesday's Gains
Today's EIA Inventory Report indicated that Crude Inventories were up 2.8 million barrels for the week ending October 30th, and the market reacted accordingly. API had forecast a build as well, so prior to the EIA release we were trending down about 1%, which accelerated to over 3% once the official numbers came out.
A few interesting notes about the build - it occurred due to a domestic production increase of 48,000 bpd to 9.16 million bpd. This increase happened despite the Baker Hughes announcement that rig counts dropped another 16 to the lowest level since 2010, and despite US imports falling to their lowest weekly level since 1991. (Down to 6.4 million barrels per day, if you're keeping score at home.)
It also happened despite the fact that every single issue that spiked the market yesterday is still very much in play. The Libyan port is still closed under occupation. The Brazilians are still on strike at PetroBras. The Colonial pipeline's Houston facility is still flooded and not allowing any deliveries or originations to occur. (You can get a recap of yesterday here: Monday sinks on Demand, Tuesday Surges on Supply )
And yet here we are, narrowly missing a complete reversal of yesterdays surge across the board.
Gasoline was projected to show a 1 million barrel drop, but instead dropped 3.3 million barrels - yet RBOB settled down -.0536, not quite erasing yesterday's 7 cent jump but coming close, considering the drop in inventory should in theory have pushed gas further ahead.
Distillates did the reverse of gasoline stocks - they were projected to drop 1.8 million barrels, but instead dropped 1.3. ULSD closed down .0625 to 1.5035, more than erasing yesterday's jump of just under 6 cents.
The October Jobs report is likely the next major news for the market, due out Friday. Maybe we will get lucky and get a breather tommorow. One can always hope.