The price of oil rose by about 0.9%, but remains near the lowest level since June 10, reached yesterday. The price recovery was triggered by data on petroleum reserves in the United States and wildfires in Canada, which forced some producers to curtail production and were threatening a large amount of supply.
Meanwhile, further price increases were limited by the positive dynamics of the US currency. The US Dollar Currency Index (DXY), which tracks the dynamics of the dollar against six currencies (euro, swiss franc, yen, canadian dollar, pound sterling and swedish krona) rose by 0.07% to 104.51.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) said yesterday that inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillates in the United States declined again last week, signaling steady demand from the world's largest oil consumer. According to the report, crude oil inventories fell by 3.9 million barrels for the week ending July 19. Economists had expected a 700,000-barrel increase. For the week prior, the API reported a 4.44 million barrel draw in crude inventories. This week marks the fourth week in a row of API-estimated inventory draws for crude oil, for a total loss of 19.4 million barrels during that time. Gasoline inventories fell by 2.8 million barrels, more than offsetting last week’s 365,000-barrel increase. Distillate inventories shrunk by 1.5 million barrels, compared to last week’s 4.92-million-barrel increase. Cushing inventories declined by 1.6 million barrels after falling by 746,000 barrels in the previous week. Now investors are waiting for official government data on oil inventory, which will be presented at 14:30 GMT. Consensus estimates suggest that oil inventory have fallen by 2.6 million barrels.