Repeat of Oil Inventory Trends (USO, OIL)

The weekly oil inventories data came out of the U.S. Department of Energy at 10:30 AM EST this morning.  Crude Oil was already down under $62.00 on global economic worries, and now WTI Crude is down -$1.44 at $61.49 per barrel.  The United States Oil (NYSE: USO)  and the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN (NYSE: OIL) are chasing the level of black gold.  The data came out as follows:

• Weekly inventories of crude came in at -2.9 million barrels to 347.3 million barrels; estimates were close to -2.1 million barrels.
• Weekly inventories of gasoline came in at +1.9 million barrels to 213.1 million barrels.
• Weekly inventories of distillates came in at +3.7 million barrels to 158.7 million barrels.
• US Refineries also ran at 86.8% capacity, down from 87% last week.

This is the second week we are seeing a drop in crude, but a build in gasoline. This was also one of the busiest driving weeks historically and it still seems that much of the draw-down from crude was added up in the gains in gasoline.  We have discussed this notion ahead of time with energy traders, and the issue of this being the sole issue is one that is easy to debate.

The United States Oil (NYSE: USO) is down 1.45% at $33.32 and the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN (OIL) is nowdown 1.3% at $21.95.

JON C. OGG
JULY 8, 2009