WTI holds above $49 in post-settlement trade after API-data

Crude oil prices failed to show a significant reaction to the API stock data with the barrel of West Texas Intermediate preserving its daily gains above the $49 mark. As of writing, the barrel of WTI was trading at $19.15, gaining 1% on the day.

Crude inventories rose by 2.8 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 1 to 462.7 million, compared with analyst expectations for an increase of 4 million barrels. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 669,000 barrels, API said on Wednesday, as reported by Reuters. Further details of the report showed that refinery crude runs fell by 2.1 million barrels per day while the U.S. crude imports fell last week by 297,000 bpd to 7.2 million bpd.

With today's price action, the barrel of WTI closed the day higher for the fifth day in a row. With OPEC members' higher compliance to the output-cut agreement in August and the Harvey hurricane hurting the U.S. oil supply, crude oil seems to have started a short-term uptrend. On Thursday, the EIA will release its crude oil stock data, which is expected to increase by 4.7 million barrels following a draw of 5.392 million barrels in the previous week.

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Technical outlook

$50 (psychological level) remains as a critical hurdle for the WTI ahead of $50.50 (Aug. 1 high) and $52 (May 5 high). On the downside, supports could be seen at $48.50 (daily low), $48 (psychological level) and $47.15 (Sep. 5 low).