The Oct WTI trading session settled at 65.75 (-2.96), had a high of 69.08, a low of 65.27. Cash price is at 68.70 (+1.07), while open interest came in at 242,556. Lower on the day by -4.31% CLV traded below its 200 day (77.54), its 50 day (76.79), its 20 day (73.26) and its 7 day (69.39) moving averages. The COT report as of 9/3 showed commercials with a net short position of -239,369 compared to non-commercials who are net long 204,784. Crude took out yesterday’s gains and then some over fear of the economic situation in China and domestically, compounded with global demand forecasts for next year, which seems to be dominating market sentiment for crude prices, in my opinion. OPEC+ now projects that demand will increase by approximately 2 million barrels per day in 2024, which is about 80,000 barrels per day less than their previous forecast. The organization expects demand to grow by 1.7 million barrels per day next year, marking a reduction of around 40,000 barrels per day from earlier predictions. Yesterday, crude oil prices were bolstered by news of a strengthening tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico, which has the potential to become a hurricane and is heading towards Louisiana tomorrow. This area, which accounts for about 60% of U.S. refining capacity, could experience hurricane landfall as early as tomorrow. According to Reuters, Exxon, Chevron, and Shell have already evacuated their staff and temporarily halted operations in the region. Per the API numbers released today, U.S. crude oil inventories dropped by 2.79 million barrels for the week ending September 6. Analysts had forecasted a 700,000-barrel increase. The previous week, the API had reported a decrease of 7.4 million barrels in crude inventories.
