Oil is down on longer term bearish factors and fall in US crude stocks
Traders place new hedges in anticipation of falling US stocks, but rising global outlooks hold the crude market in check
London — Oil prices were down on Friday as the market refocused on bearish longer term factors following a bounce in the previous session as US crude inventories in a key hub fell to their lowest in nearly four years.US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $68.70 a barrel at 8.47am GMT, down 26c from their last settlement. Brent crude futures were at $73.15 a barrel, down 30c from their last close.Stocks at the key Cushing storage hub in Oklahoma fell by 1.3-million barrels, the lowest level since October 2014, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). This helped push Brent futures to close $1 a barrel higher on Thursday.Overall US crude oil inventories actually rose by 3.8-million barrels last week to 408.74-million barrels, the EIA data showed."Trade volume is pretty low in futures today. Yesterday you had a strong rebound supported by Cushing but there’s not a lot else that is driving prices higher so we are seeing a bit of a correction,"...
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