Crude – Brent oil June futures prices edged down 40 cents or 0.452 pct to $88.02 a barrel while WTI oil June futures prices dipped 50 cents or 0.58 pct to $82.87 a barrel during Wednesday session at the time of reporting. Both the benchmarks rose below 2 pct during the previous session. Brent premium widened $5.06 a barrel to WTI during the session.
Crude benchmark futures price index curves moved down today after a rally on bullish weekly data reported by API yesterday. A drop in economic activity in world’s largest oil consumer capped the rally and reversed previous session’s gains. Markets switched focus from geo-politics to financial markets. Both the stock markets and currency markets lent support to crude complex. Turning to weekly data, API reported that U.S crude stocks fell by 3.237Mbpd last week. Government department is yet to confirm the numbers. EIA data is due later today. Consensus is on piling up stocks as per analysts. EIA data may spur some volatility in the market tomorrow.
