Oil Drops After Profit Taking From Weak Inventories

West Texas Intermediate fell by the most in three days, dropping from a one-week high reached yesterday after U.S. crude inventories shrank for the first time since March. Brent declined in London amid signs that tension in Ukraine may recede.

Futures fell as much as 0.6 percent in New York after rising 1.3 percent yesterday. Crude stockpiles fell by 1.78 million barrels last week as supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI, dropped to the lowest level since December 2008, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin called on separatists in Ukraine to postpone a vote for autonomy and said he pulled troops from the country’s border after weeks of tension.

“There was a big surprise yesterday with the drop in crude oil inventories that prompted support for prices, so today it looks as though there is a bit of profit-taking,” Myrto Sokou, senior research analyst at Sucden Financial Ltd. in London, said by phone.

WTI for June delivery fell 52 cents to $100.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, at 1:33 p.m. London time. The contract gained $1.27 to $100.77 yesterday, the highest close since April 29. The volume of all futures traded was about 17 percent below the 100-day average for the time of day. Prices have advanced 1.8 percent this year.

via Bloomberg

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza