Weekly DOE Data… Rising Oil & Gasoline Stocks As Refining Holds Up (VLO, USO)

The weekly data from the Department of Energy showed a rise in Crude Oil Stocks, with a gain of 4.175 million barrels to 338.942 million barrels.  Dow Jones had been expecting a build up of only about 3 million barrels and we were not given any data to suggest much different expectations this week.  The big surprise came from gasoline inventories, which rose by 3.01 million barrels to 230.147 million barrels.  Dow Jones was expecting only 200,000 to build and we had been told to look for a build up of closer to 1 million barrels.

The good news is that refining capacity did not drop as much as the last week’s refining capacity fell to 81.8% from 82.2% a week earlier.  Dow Jones was expecting 81.4% and our data was closer to 81.5%. 

Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) has held up well since earnings and the stock today is lagging the broad market up 0.6% at $24.12.

The United States Oil Fund (NYSE: USO) is up 0.1% at $37.87 after the news.

JON C. OGG