Oil Mixed Wednesday

Oil Mixed Wednesday

NEW YORK (DTN) -- New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures were mixed at the start of regular trade Wednesday morning ahead of domestic oil supply data for the week-ended Aug. 12 due out at 10:30 AM ET from the Energy Information Administration.

The oil futures complex dipped overnight after the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported unexpected stock builds for gasoline and distillate fuels and the U.S. dollar rebounded from a seven-week low posted Tuesday following hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials.

The API reported gasoline stockpiles increased by 2.2 million bbl and supplies of distillate fuels increased 2.4 million bbl during the week-ended Aug. 12. A Schneider Electric survey showed the market expected stock draws of 1.7 million bbl for gasoline and 700,000 bbl for distillates.

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The trade group reported total U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 1.0 million bbl, with crude supplies at the Cushing delivery point for West Texas Intermediate in Oklahoma down by 700,000 bbl.

In today's session, options contracts for NYMEX September WTI crude oil futures will expire at the 2:30 PM ET close of regular trade session.

At 9:00 AM ET, NYMEX September WTI crude futures were little changed, down 3cts at a $46.55 bbl, having reversed down from Tuesday's $46.73 one-month spot high. October Brent on IntercontinentalExchange advanced 12cts to $49.43 bbl a, edging off a $49.46 fresh five-week spot high posted in premarket.

In products trade, NYMEX September ULSD futures edged up 1.84cts to $1.4797 gallon, off a $1.4803 five-week spot high. The NYMEX September RBOB futures contract was little changed, nudging up 0.57cts to $1.4283 gallon, after earlier posting a fresh one-month high of $1.4293.

The oil futures complex rallied Tuesday on a sharply weaker U.S. dollar and speculation the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC would take action to stabilize oil prices when they informally meet late next month alongside a separate oil conference in Algiers set to be held Sept. 26-28.

However, analysts are skeptical an agreement will be reached between Russia, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the OPEC members to freeze or cut output since previous efforts failed. At a meeting in Doha earlier this year, OPEC failed to reach a production freeze deal after Saudi Arabia insisted Iran must also participate in the deal and cut production. Iran refused to do so, a position it took before that meeting, saying it would ramp up production after winning sanctions relief in January.

In currency trade, the dollar reversed higher ahead of the release of minutes of last month's Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The most recent comments from Fed officials revived speculation an increase in interest rates could come this year.

George Orwel can be reached at rgeorge.orwel@dtn.com

(BAS)

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