Crude is recovering from yesterday’s losses with modest gains in early trading Thursday morning. WTI Crude is trading up this morning at $58.17, a gain of 36 cents.
Fuel is mixed but relatively flat in early trading this morning. Diesel is trading at $1.8667, a loss of 1.1 cents. Gasoline is trading at $1.6413, a gain of 0.5 cents.
On Wednesday, crude prices fell after the EIA reported a near 15 MMbbls total product build, rising to a four-month high and highlighting weak demand. This fall was despite in the phase one trade deal, China agreeing to $50 billion of additional energy purchases over the next two years.
The EIA reported a larger -than-expected draw for crude of 2.5 MMbbls, versus an expected draw of 0.5 MMbbls. At Cushing, the EIA reported a 0.3 MMbbls draw. For the Market, the draws could not outweigh the very large builds in products. The EIA reported distillates had a larger-than-expected build and gasoline also saw a larger-than-expected build. These builds initially set off a sell-off, but by this morning, markets have recovered somewhat.