Crude ends lower

Crude stockpiles drop less than expected

Crude-oil prices ended lower on Wednesday, 07 August 2013 at Nymex. U.S. crude-oil futures retreated on Wednesday after EIA reported a smaller-than-anticipated drawdown in weekly crude stocks.

Light and sweet crude for September ended lower by $0.93 (0.9%) at $104.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.

In the latest weekly inventory report, the Energy Information Administration reported that crude supplies decreased by 1.3 million barrels for the week ended 2 August to 363.3 million barrels. Market had expected a drop of 2 million barrels. The EIA also said crude stocks are near the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. It added that distillate inventories increased by 500,000 barrels last week, while gasoline stocks edged up by 100,000 barrels. Market had expected supplies for each to decline by 1 million barrels.

The commodity markets early on saw some residual selling pressure after some more “Fed speak” on Monday, in which two Federal Reserve officials made comments that the market place perceived as slightly favoring the hawkish side of U.S. monetary policy. The market place remains preoccupied with the timing of just when the U.S. central bank will begin to “taper” its monthly bond-buying program, also known as quantitative easing.

It remains a quieter, summertime trading atmosphere in many markets. Such could continue to be the case until after the U.S. Labor Day holiday in early September.

The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, fell by 0.5% on Wednesday.

Among economic data expected at Wall Street today, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index ticked up 0.2% to follow seven consecutive contractionary readings, including last week's decline of 3.7%.

Separately, June consumer credit increased by $13.8 billion, which follows the prior month's increase of $17.5 billion, and is higher than the $16.0 billion that had been expected.

Among other energy products on Wednesday, September gasoline shed 4 cents, or 1.5%, to end at $2.87 a gallon, while September heating oil also lost 4 cents, or 1.5%, to $2.96 a gallon.

Natural gas for September delivery slid 7 cents, or 2.1%, to settle at $3.25 per million British thermal units.

At the MCX, crude oil for August delivery closed lower by Rs 50 (0.77%) at Rs 6,409/barrel. Natural gas for September delivery closed lower by Rs 4.9 (2.3%) at Rs 203.