BS: WTI Drops a Second Day as U.S. Crude Supplies Rise
West Texas Intermediate dropped for a second day as crude stockpiles increased for the first time in five weeks in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Brent declined in London.
Futures slid as much as 0.9 percent in New York. Crude inventories expanded by 3.67 million barrels to 362.3 million last week, a report from the Energy Information Administration showed yesterday. Supplies were forecast to fall by 1.5 million, according a Bloomberg News survey. The Federal Reserve raised estimates for interest rates yesterday.
“The nationwide build of 3.67 million barrels likely helped set the bearish tone for trading in the U.S.,” David Wech, an analyst at JBC Energy GmbH in Vienna, said in a report. The “expected tightening of U.S. monetary policy” is weighing on the outlook for global economic growth, he said.
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WTI for October delivery dropped as much as 80 cents to $93.62 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $94.18 at 9:09 a.m. London time. The contract slid 46 cents to $94.42 yesterday. The volume of all futures traded was about 16 percent below the 100-day average. Prices have decreased 4.6 percent this year.
Brent for November settlement declined as much as 69 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $98.28 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $5.50 to WTI for the same month.
Crude Stockpiles
U.S. crude supplies have climbed to the highest level since 2012 for this time of the year as production surges amid the shale boom. Output rose by 248,000 barrels a day to 8.838 million during the week ended Sept. 12, the most since March 1986, said the EIA, the Energy Department’s statistical arm.
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Gasoline inventories shrank by 1.6 million barrels to 210.7 million last week, the EIA said. They were projected to decrease by 125,000 barrels, according to the median estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Distillate stockpiles, which include heating oil and diesel, expanded by 279,000 barrels to 127.8 million, said the EIA. That was a fourth weekly gain. Inventories were forecast to increase by 750,000 barrels in the survey.
The Fed increased by 25 basis points its median estimate for where the federal funds rate will be by the end of 2015, while maintaining a commitment to keep rates near zero for a “considerable time” after quantitative easing ends. A stronger U.S. dollar typically undermines the appeal of investing in commodities to protect against inflation.
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“The Fed commentary with the raised interest-rate expectations fed directly into the currency markets, and that’s putting pressure on commodities,” said Michael McCarthy, a chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney who predicts investors may buy WTI contracts if prices drop to about $91.50 a barrel.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net; Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaric Nightingale at anightingal1@bloomberg.net Bruce Stanley, Rachel Graham