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The market continued its downward trend early Wednesday following the bearish API statistics that were released Tuesday evening. The API statistics showed a crude build of 3.9 million barrels, and builds in both refined products of 4.6 million and 1.1 million barrels in gasoline and distillates respectively.  The DOE statistics that came out yesterday showed a build in crude of 1.8 million barrels.  However, Cushing inventories drew by 3.6 million barrels.  Gasoline built 3.6 million barrels, and distillates showed a draw of 459,000 barrels.  The report showed demand was up on both products. After the less bearish DOEs at 10:30 a.m. ET, the market bounced back across the board.  WTI settled up $1.41/bbl to $60.60, RBOB finished up $0.0277/gal to $1.7130, and HO rallied $0.0475/gal to $1.8844. 

Yesterday, WTI closed up $.015/bbl to $57.62, HO closed up $0.0194/gal to $1.9139, and RBOB finished up $0.0262/gal to $1.7184. After the release of the API statistics last night, those gains came right back off. The APIs reported a crude inventory draw of 5.5 million barrels and 2.0 million of that draw was in Cushing, the decrease in crude was expected because this week’s numbers still factor in issues with the pipeline. The bearish stats were on refined products; gasoline inventories build 9.2 million barrels, and distillates built 4.3 million barrels.

The OPEC rhetoric seems to be factored into oil prices by now and the market is reacting to the weekly inventory statistics. As of 11:00 a.m. ET, both HO and RBOB are down about $.0350/gal and WTI is down $1.00/bbl.

The DOE statistics pretty much mirror what the APIs reported. Crude inventories showed a draw of 5.6 million barrels, 2.7 of that coming from Cushing, OK. Both refined products still had builds, just not quite as substantial. Gasoline inventories built by 6.8 million barrels, and distillates by 1.7 million barrels.

Key support levels to start the day were WTI at $57.20, HO at $1.8975, and RBOB at $1.6916. The market is well below these values already.

Yesterday, Jan WTI closed down $0.12/bbl to $57.99, Dec RBOB closed down $0.0173/gal to $1.7720, and Dec HO finished up $0.0029/gal to $1.9507. After close, the API statistics were released and initially the stats were interpreted as very bearish and the market dropped off across the board.  The API statistics showed a build in crude inventories of 1.8 million barrels, however Cushing showed a draw of 3.2 million barrels.  Gasoline inventories dropped 1.5 million barrels, and distillates built 2.7 million barrels.  The build in crude had the market off, but since this morning it has come back some because the large build was in PADD V.  The 3.2 million barrel draw in Cushing was a result of the leak and shutdown of the Keystone Pipeline. 

Yesterday, oil prices softened a bit after Monday’s large rally that hit two year highs. WTI Crude closed down $0.15/bbl to $57.20, RBOB closed down $0.0147/gal to $1.8153, and HO finished down $0.0203/gal to $1.9219.  The market continued downward after American Petroleum Institute (API) statistics were released yesterday afternoon.  API reported a much smaller draw in crude inventories then expected at 1.6 million barrels.  Gasoline inventories built 520,000 barrels, while distillates drew 3.1 million barrels.  The surprising crude statistics is outweighing the draw in distillates, because as of 10:15 a.m. ET HO is down almost $0.01/gal, RBOB is down $0.0170/gal and WTI is down $0.35/bbl. 

Yesterday was the last trading session of the month for the November (X) futures and all products are now trading prompt month December (Z) futures.  WTI crude closed up $0.23/bbl to $54.38, Dec HO finished up $0.0043/gal to $1.8805, and Dec RBOB closed up $0.0193/gal to $1.7325.  The market continues to trade higher into today’s trading session.  The API statistics last night were extremely bullish with large draws reported across the board.  Crude inventories drew 5.1 million barrels, distillates drew 3.1 million barrels, and gasoline drew 7.7 million barrels.  Also supporting prices is the continued rhetoric around OPEC extending production cuts until the end of 2018.  Rebalancing rhetoric is likely to continue all the way up till the official meeting towards the end of this month in Vienna.