November Nymex WTI prices are trading moderately higher Thursday after suffering some sharp declines during the previous session. November WTI futures ended Wednesday’s session $3.75 lower, or 4.1%, at $88.14 a barrel. The move lower followed fears of a slowdown in China after a reading of China’s service sector showed less expansion in September compared to August, whilst consumer sentiment in the country fell for the third consecutive month. In terms of supply, EIA data last night showed US crude oil stocks fell 482,000 barrels to 364.698 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 28, against expectation of an increase of 1.5 million barrels, Platts notes. Despite the modest decline, US crude stocks remain ample, sitting 10.46% above the EIA’s five-year average, Platts says. “Last week’s decline is likely in part a result of increased gross inputs to US refineries, which rose 149,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 15.202 million b/d, pushing refinery utilization rates 0.8 percentage point higher to 88.2% of capacity.” November WTI has picked up from lows of $87.91 to trade an intra-day high of $88.43, now $88.30.
EasyForexNews Research Team