BREAKING: OIL ticks higher after DOE report

US Department of Energy (DOE) issued an official, weekly report on US oil inventories today at 3:30 pm BST. Report was expected to show an increase in headline crude oil inventories, as well as declines in gasoline and distillate stockpiles. API reported released yesterday in the evening matched expected directions of moves, but hinted at a bigger magnitude than suggested by expectations.

Actual data turned out to be a positive surprise for prices. While headlien crude inventories increase more than expected, build was smaller than suggested by API yesterday. Meanwhile, gasoline inventories and, especially, distillate inventories dropped more than expected.

Oil jumped following the report, although the scale of the move was minimal.

DOE report on US oil inventories

• Oil inventories: +2.74 mb vs +1.4 mb expected (API: +4.09 mb)
• Gasoline inventories: -1.15 mb vs -1.0 mb expected (API:-2.51 mb)
• Distillate inventories: -2.76 mb vs -0.3 mb expected (API: -0.43 mb)

Source: xStation5