NEW YORK – Crude oil rose from a one-year low after an industry-report showed that U.S. inventories declined and as companies added more jobs than forecast.
Futures climbed as much as 3.7 percent after the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude supplies fell 3.1 million barrels last week. The Energy Department is forecast to report a 1.5 million barrel gain today. ADP Employer Services showed companies in the U.S. added 91,000 jobs in September.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
“The API report Tuesday afternoon showed declines across the board, giving us support,” said Tom Bentz, a broker with BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. in New York. “The market has fallen a great deal recently. Its oversold state is probably the biggest factor behind today’s move higher.”
Crude oil for November delivery rose $1.82, or 2.4 percent, to $77.49 a barrel at 9:06 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, prices dropped 2.5 percent to $75.67, the lowest settlement since Sept. 23, 2010. Oil is down 15 percent this year and dropped 7.9 percent the past three days on recession concerns.
Brent oil for November settlement advanced $1.45, or 1.5 percent, to $101.24 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract’s close yesterday represented a 21 percent drop since April 8, when prices ended the session at $126.65 a barrel. A 20 percent drop is the common definition of a bear market.
Fuel Inventories
U.S. gasoline supplies dropped 4.97 million barrels last week, according to the API. The Energy Department report is forecast to show a gain of 1.5 million, according to the median of 15 analyst responses in a Bloomberg News survey.
Inventories of distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil, fell 1.97 million barrels, according to the API. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News project the DOE will report a 300,000 barrel decline.
The API collects stockpile information on a voluntary basis from operators of refineries, bulk terminals and pipelines. The government requires that reports be filed with the Energy Department for its weekly survey. The API and Energy Department data have moved in the same direction 71 percent of the time over the past 10 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected that Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP would report an advance of 75,000 jobs. A Labor Department report in two days is forecast to show businesses added 90,000 jobs in September, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed.
Saudi Crackdown
Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest producer, vowed to use “an iron fist” after 11 members of the security forces were injured by attackers during unrest in a Shiite Muslim town in the east, the official Saudi Press Agency said.
The government accused an unnamed “foreign country” of seeking to undermine the stability of the kingdom as a result of the violence in Awwamiya, in which the assailants, some on motorcycles, used machine guns and Molotov cocktails, the Riyadh-based news service reported late Tuesday. A man and two women were injured, the news service said.
The US needs 100 to 150k new jobs just to stay even so how this is interpreted as positive is beyond me.
Wall Street is manipulated just as badly as the the commodities markets are. They are a joke.