What's Moving the Oil Markets?

What's Moving the Oil Markets?

•- ICE Brent futures in London edged higher Thursday during thin trading, halting the tumble in prices driven caused by a bearish set of US distillate stocks, traders said. As the Northern hemisphere enters the winter season, healthy looking distillate stocks have pushed crude futures prices down almost $4/barrel in the last two days.

•- The fall in prices came despite draws in US crude stocks reported by both the Energy Information Administration and the American Petroleum Institute. The EIA revealed a 2.8 million barrel fall in stocks and the API a larger 4.1 million fall compared to analysts expectations of only a 1.6 million barrel draw.

•- "It's extremely quiet today, with volumes low, after the sell-off over the past couple of days," a London-based broker said. The main market mover came in the from of bearish US distillate stocks, as the market looks towards heating oil data rather than gasoline as the weather turns cooler. The EIA showed a 4.1 million increase in distillate barrels held in the US and the American Petroleum Institute showed a 3.9 million build, both larger than the 1.3 million barrel build expected by analysts.

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