Commodities▼ Bearish
Oil Retreats on Profit-Taking, EIA Data Caps Rally
WTI oil fell from $80 resistance after profit-taking. EIA reported crude draw of 1.7M barrels, gasoline draw, distillate build. Iran threatened Hormuz. Natural gas eyes $3.00.
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Oil prices slipped on Wednesday as traders booked profits from a rally that had pushed crude to multi-week highs. The move came after Iran's Revolutionary Guard threatened to shut exports through the Strait of Hormuz, a threat that initially boosted prices but faded as no immediate disruption materialized.
The EIA's weekly petroleum status report showed crude inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels, below the 2.6 million barrel decline analysts had expected. Gasoline stocks dropped 1.5 million barrels, more than the 0.8 million barrel forecast. Distillate fuel inventories rose by 4.6 million barrels.
U.S. crude imports edged up 60,000 barrels per day to 5.7 million bpd. Domestic production held at 13.861 million bpd, unchanged from the prior week. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve declined to 316.5 million barrels from 319.5 million, a multi-decade low that traders said supports the bullish case for oil.