Analysts polled by Bloomberg expcect the EIA to report a draw of 1.27 million barrels for the country’s inventory levels during the week ended June 5, while those at the Cushing hub are expected to fall by 850,000 barrels.
In its twice-yearly Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank predicted the global economy would expand 2.8 percent this year, below its 3 percent outlook in January, with India recording the biggest growth of major economies for the first time, ahead of slowing China. The gains were driven by a big U.S. stocks drawdown that boosted the outlook for summer fuel demand.
Prices retreated slightly from intraday highs as traders looked at production data, which showed that U.S. oil output rose last week to 9.5 million barrels a day, a record high in weekly data.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter, will supply full contracted volumes of crude oil to at least two Asian term buyers in July, unchanged from June, following Opec’s decision to maintain its production target, industry sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Some U.S. companies have said that if prices hold above $60 a barrel, they can increase production.
Gasoline stocks dropped 2.9 million barrels last week, while analysts expected a drop of 0.5 million barrels.
COMEX gold for August delivery continued its recovery to $1,181.50 an ounce up 0.33% or $3.90, while COMEX silver for July delivery was up 10 cents or 0.65% at $16.06 an ounce.
Following the release of last week’s report, crude oil futures traded in the red through the day. Projected real gross domestic product (GDP) weighted for oil consumption, which increased by an estimated 2.8% in 2014, is projected to grow by 2.4% in 2015 and by 3.0% in 2016. Analysts polled by Platts were looking for a fall of 500,000 for gasoline supplies and an increase of 1.2 million barrels for distillates, which include heating oil. OPEC’s monthly report forecast total U.S. liquids production for 2015 at 13.56 million barrels a day.
Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded up about 1.6%, at $101.92 in a 52-week range of $98.88 to $135.10. Total motor gasoline supplied (the agency’s measure of consumption) averaged about 9.4 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, down by 1.7% compared with the same period a year ago. As of 7:34 AM EDT, the United States Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the global value of the greenback, was trading down by 0.25% at 94.93 points.
