WTI hits a two-week low on inventory build, COVID-19 cases

Commodity Market: US Crude Oil hits a two-week trough on large US inventory build, resurgent COVID-19 infections

Written by Miroslav Marinov

Miroslav Marinov, a financial news editor at TradingPedia, is engaged with observing and reporting on the tendencies in the Foreign Exchange Market, as currently his focus is set on the major currencies of eight developed nations worldwide.

, | Updated: October 30, 2024

Futures on US West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil retreated to a two-week low on Thursday following a larger-than-anticipated surge in US crude oil stocks.

In addition, a surge in COVID-19 cases in western Europe, record deaths and the prospect of lockdown restrictions in Russia as well as new outbreaks of coronavirus infections in China threatened to disrupt the recovery in oil demand, while putting a multi-week oil price rally to a halt.

Meanwhile, the US economy probably expanded at the slowest rate in over a year in the September quarter amid resurgent COVID-19 cases and global supply chain issues.

The official report by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed yesterday that crude oil inventories had increased by 4.267 million barrels during the week ended October 22nd. Analysts on average had anticipated a much smaller increase – by 1.914 million barrels.

According to Citi Research commodities analysts, the inventory build came “on the back of a large jump in net imports of crude oil and still sluggish refinery processing.”

On the other hand, US gasoline inventories dropped by 1.994 million barrels last week to their lowest level in almost four years.

As of 9:34 GMT on Thursday WTI Crude Oil Futures were retreating 0.75% to trade at $82.04 per barrel. Earlier in the trading session the black liquid slipped as low as $80.58 per barrel, which has been its weakest price level since October 14th ($80.38 per barrel). WTI Crude Oil Futures have risen 9.44% so far in October, following another 9.53% gain in September.

At the same time, Brent Oil Futures were losing 0.52% on the day to trade at $83.72 per barrel. Earlier in the trading session the commodity slipped as low as $82.32 per barrel, which has been its weakest price level since October 13th ($82.26 per barrel). Brent Oil Futures have risen 6.89% so far in October, following another 9.28% gain in September.