The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of October 25, 2016.
Crude oil: In the weekly EIA report, the inventory data was favorable but oil was unable to rally, with spot West Texas Intermediate crude dropping 1.6 percent on Wednesday.
Earlier on Sunday, Iraq said it does not want to join OPEC output cut, if there is one, which will be decided at its November 30th meeting. Iraq said it currently produced 4.77 million barrels per day, of which 3.87 mb/d was exported. The Iraqi news already put oil under pressure. Then there were technicals.
Since the February lows, spot WTI has been making higher lows, and would have been an interesting development had it convincingly pushed past the June 9th high of $51.67 for higher highs. On October 19, the spot did rise to $52.22 but the momentum did not last very long. Weekly momentum indicators are now coming under pressure. The February trend line comes up for a retest around $46.
In the week through October 21, crude stocks fell by 553,000 barrels to 468.2 million barrels. This was the lowest since January 22 this year. Crude stocks have dropped by 27.1 million barrels in the last eight weeks.
Gasoline stocks dropped by two million barrels to 226 million barrels, and distillate stocks by 3.4 million barrels to 152.4 million barrels – an 11-week low.
Crude imports, on the other hand, rose by 109,000 b/d to seven mb/d. The prior week was the lowest since June 19, 2015.
Crude production increased by 40,000 b/d to 8.5 mb/d – a five-week high. Production peaked at 9.61 mb/d in the June 5th week last year.
And refinery utilization inched up six-tenths of a point to 85.6. The prior week was the lowest since April 26, 2013.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
