Oil futures fall further after EIA supply data
Oil futures fell Wednesday, extending their losses further below $100 a barrel as traders brushed off an unexpected drop in weekly crude supplies, attributing the decline to the recent, temporary closure of a key U.S. seaport.
May crude oil CLK4 -0.23% fell 68 cents, or 0.7%, to $99.06 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, on track for a third-straight day of losses. Prices briefly dipped under $99 a barrel in the wake of the U.S. supply data. They were trading around $99.26 before the release.May Brent crude futures UK:LCOK4 -1.03% , the European benchmark, dropped $1.13, or 1.1%, to $104.49 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange after a fall of 2% a day earlier.On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude stockpiles fell 2.4 million barrels for the week ended March 28. Analysts polled by Platts were looking for a climb of 1.8 million barrels, but the American Petroleum Institute reported on Tuesday a drop of 5.8 million barrels.Increases in crude inventories began on the week ended Jan. 17 and have risen each week since then, according to EIA data.The break from the stretch of consecutive builds “seems bullish from the outside,” but “these numbers are likely blemished from the disruptions in the Houston Ship Channel last week,” said John Macaluso, research analyst at Tyche Capital Advisors....MORE
