API data The EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) will release the weekly crude oil data on July 8, 2015, at 10:30 AM EST for the week ending July 3, 2015. Yesterday, the API (American Petroleum Institute) released its weekly crude oil, gasoline, and distillates inventory report. The report showed that crude oil stocks fell by 0.96 MMbbls (million barrels) for the week ending July 3—compared to a rise of 1.9 MMbbls for the week ending June 26, 2015. Gasoline stocks fell by 2.04 MMbbls, but distillate stocks rose by 4.2 MMbbls for the week ending July 3, 2015. On July 1, 2015, the EIA reported that US commercial crude oil inventories rose by 2.4 MMbbls to 465.4 MMbbls for the week ending June 26, 2015. Oil stocks are almost 21% higher than the levels in 2014. They rose for the second time in the last ten weeks. EIA stocks estimates A Reuters poll suggests that oil stocks fell by 0.70 MMbbls. A Bloomberg survey showed that oil inventories fell by 0.75 MMbbls for the week ending July 3, 2015. Industry estimates suggest that gasoline inventories are also expected to fall by 0.254 MMbbls for the same period. In contrast, distillates stocks are estimated to rise by 0.86 MMbbls. The consensus of falling oil and gasoline stocks could support crude oil prices. However, despite the falling crude oil stocks’ estimates, oil prices have plunged more than 10% in the last four days. The US dollar is adding more pressure to crude oil. The extreme volatility of crude oil prices is influencing the performance of crude oil producers like Pioneer (PXD), Hess (HES), and Noble Energy (NBL). Combined, they account for 10.21% of the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE). These stocks also have a crude oil production mix that’s more than 46% of their total production. Falling oil prices also impact ETFs like XLE and the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP).

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