Refined Product Prices Taking A Breather

Refined product prices are down slightly so far this morning, taking a breather after seeing some buying pressure Tuesday. American gasoline and diesel and European crude oil futures are all down around half a percent this morning while American crude is up just a couple cents per barrel.

The American Petroleum Institute published their weekly national inventory levels yesterday afternoon with a limited market reaction. The trade association estimates a net build in crude oil inventories of .8 million barrels of crude oil and gasoline stockpiles at 1.4 million barrels. Diesel stocks are expected to be about the same as last week, with a drawdown of only 50 thousand barrels. The Department of Energy will publish their weekly report at their regular scheduling this morning at 9:30 CDT.

All quiet on the hurricane front so far this season: a combination of warmer-than-average sea temperatures in the Pacific ocean (AKA El Niño, or The Niño) and plumes of transient, windblown dust from the Saharan desert are keeping tropical development to a minimum so far this year. The National Hurricane Center expects no cyclonic activity to develop for the next couple days, at least.

The dovish signals from the European Central bank incited buying on Wall Street yesterday, bringing the energy complex along for the ride. The US Federal reserve will publish its monetary policy summary later this afternoon and most expect a more hawkish outlook. However, traders also expect the Fed to cut rates at least one more time this year, most likely next month, in an effort to keep the American economy chugging along.

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