Refined Product Prices Bounced

Refined product prices bounced yesterday, nullifying Monday’s losses. RBOB lead the fuel benchmarks adding over 2.5 cents on the day, ULSD futures bumped just over 1.5 cents. WTI futures broke away Tuesday and posted slight losses along with the European crude benchmark.

The American Petroleum Institute published its national inventory estimated yesterday, pegging a ~5 million barrel bump in crude oil inventories for last week, adding to the 35 million barrel net build we’ve seen so far this year. Diesel inventory drew down about 3.5 million barrels while gas built a small 83,000 barrels. The Department of Energy’s official report will be published at its regular time this morning at 9:30 Central time.

Concerns over decreased demand growth reported by the EIA yesterday are taking the blame for this morning’s selloff with crude oil leading the complex lower with a 3% loss. Gas and diesel seem to be following along but in limited capacity falling only 2% and 1.5% respectively.

A confirmation of the API’s inventory estimates could send prices sharply lower this morning and only the weekly futures charts seem to have a support level that could temper the fall. A loss of 5% is not out of the question should we see unexpected builds in the nation’s refined product stocks.

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