WTI/CLV24 – 8/28/24

Jim RinaudoGeneral Commentary

8/28/24

The Oct WTI trading session had a high of 75.95, a low of 73.82 and closed at 74.52, cash price is at 75.55, while open interest came in at 313,117.
Lower on the day by -1.01 (-1.34%). CLV traded below its 50 day (77.33) and its 20 day (74.87) moving average but above its 7 day (74.38) average. I still think there’s resistance around that 50 day MA of 77.33, but if we can settle above it one of these days we could find some upward support and test 80, but until then the bearish supply/economic news and the fact we are approaching the end of the summer driving season has me believing that those factors will outweigh the war premium and technical movement. This morning the Energy Information Administration reported a slight decline of 800,000 barrels in U.S. commercial crude inventories for the week ending August 23, this was well below the 2.7m forecast. The EIA also showed U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaging 16.9 million barrels per day, up by 175,000 barrels per day compared to the previous week’s average. In the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged around 6.4 million barrels per day, marking a 6.1% decrease compared to the same period last year. This is the second week straight we’ve had a decline in domestic crude inventories. Yesterday’s API numbers showed crude oil inventories in the United States decreasing by 3.4 million barrels for the week ending August 23, surpassing analysts’ expectations of a 3 million barrel drop.