BS: Oil Trades Near Lowest in a Month on Rising U.S. Inventories
Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil futures traded near their lowest level in a month on concern that the recovery is not strong enough to whittle down excessive U.S. fuel inventories.
The U.S. Energy Department report yesterday showed that total petroleum stockpiles surged to the highest level in at least 20 years. Crude futures in New York subsequently fell to $73.83 a barrel, the lowest in more than a month.
“All the macro data points to a slowdown in the growth in the second half, which would be bearish for commodities,” said Gerrit Zambo, a trader at Bayerische Landesbank in Munich. “I see a good chance to slip down to $70 in the coming weeks and months.”
Crude oil for September delivery gained as much as 68 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $76.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and slipped to $75.56 at 12:47 p.m. London time. Brent crude for October traded up 5 cents at $76.52 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange in London.
Inventories of distillate fuel climbed 1.07 million barrels to 174.2 million last week. Supplies were forecast to increase by 1.5 million barrels, according to the median of 18 analyst estimates in the Bloomberg survey.
Gasoline inventories dropped 39,000 barrels to 223.3 million, the department said in a weekly report. A 375,000- barrel decline was forecast by the analysts surveyed.
--With assistance from Ann Koh in Singapore and Ben Sharples in Melbourne. Editors: John Buckley, Rob Verdonck
To contact the reporter on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
