Crude oil inventory for the current week build 4.070M vs estimate 3.028M

• Prior week oil inventory build 8.664M
• Crude oil inventory buildup 4.070M versus 3.028M estimate
• Gasoline drawdown of -3.035M versus estimate of a build of 1.403M
• Distillate build of 0.135M vs drawdown of -1.539M estimate
• Cushing build of 0.872M vs. last week drawdown of -0.034M
• Weekly refining utilization 0.5% versus 0.5% expected. Previous +1.0%
• Crude production change 0.12% versus +1.8% last week

The price of crude oil is trading down $-1.20 or -1.62% at $72.13 . Looking at the hourly chart, the low price is moving closer to its rising 100 hour moving average at $71.93.. The price is also trading below its 200 hour moving average at $72.24.

With the price between those two moving averages, the price of crude oil is within a neutral technical area. Moving below the 100-hour moving average would be more bearish. Holding support here and bouncing back above the 200-hour moving average would give the dip buyers against the moving averages some comfort as long as the price remains above those moving averages.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.