Oil Futures Flat on Mixed US Macros, Checkered EIA Report


   
   VIENNA (DTN) -- Oil futures closest to expiration on the New York Mercantile 
Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange moved largely 
sideways Thursday morning after closing lower Wednesday despite the Energy 
Information Administration reporting the first crude oil draw since mid-March.

   According to the EIA, domestic commercial crude inventories shrank by 6.368 
million bbl in the week ending April 19 -- almost double the figure reported by 
the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday which took the market by 
surprise. The EIA also confirmed a smaller-than-expected draw from gasoline 
inventories and a surprise build in distillate fuel oil stocks.

   Demand for the latter has been cause for concern amid stuttering industrial 
activity and a prolonged freight recession. Wednesday's weekly report further 
stoked demand concerns, showing an underwhelming 3.552 million bpd of 
distillate fuel oil supplied to the domestic market last week, down 114,000 
bpd. This brought the four-week average of the demand proxy to 3.425 million 
bpd, trailing year-ago levels by 11.6%.

   Tuesday's release of preliminary PMI data for April showed no expansion in 
U.S. manufacturing activity so far this month, supporting a dim outlook on 
demand for the middle of the barrel. While U.S. durable goods orders in March 
beat expectations, the Census Bureau in Wednesday's report revealed yet another 
decline in durable goods shipments.

   All eyes will now be on the first U.S. GDP growth estimate for the first 
quarter, scheduled to be released at 8:30 AM ET by the Bureau of Economic 
Analysis. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's GDPNow tracker's final estimate 
for the first quarter was revised from 2.9% to 2.7% on Wednesday.

   Near 7:15 AM ET, West Texas Intermediate and Brent futures for June delivery 
were both up $0.14 to trade near $82.95 bbl and $88.16 bbl, respectively. RBOB 
for May delivery gained $0.0137 to $2.7480 gallon, while ULSD for May delivery 
hovered around $2.5644 gallon, up $0.0145.

    

    

   Karim Bastati, karim.bastati@dtn.com, www.dtn.com.




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