Crude Oil Gushes Over $132, a New Record
Crude futures are on a tear in Wednesday's trading session at the New York Mercantile Exchange, soaring to an intraday record of more than $132 on a bullish oil inventory report from the Energy Department and a falling dollar.
West Texas crude for July delivery was last up $2.49 at $131.47 a barrel, while Brent crude was gaining $3.15 to $130.99 a barrel. At one point crude traded at $132.08, its highest intraday price ever.
Reformulated gasoline is up 6 cents at $3.36 a gallon, while heating oil is up 6 cents at $3.84 a gallon. Near-term natural gas was adding 21 cents to $11.58 per million British thermal units.
The Energy Information Administration's petroleum report for the week ending May 16 showed a large draw in oil stores that missed analyst forecasts by wide margins, sending oil traders scurrying to make adjustments to their supply and demand models. Crude stores fell 5.3 million barrels during the week. Analysts were expecting a 300,000 barrel build in oil stores, according to a
Bloomberg
survey.
Cramer: As Oil Rises, Turn to Wind Stocks |
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Gasoline stores also surprised the market, falling 755,000 gallons during the week against a prior analyst consensus of a 250,000 gallon build. Distillate inventories rose by 730,000 barrels, 700,000 barrels fewer than analysts were expecting.
Also pressuring oil was a sharp downward move in the U.S. dollar. The dollar slid nearly a cent against the euro, which appears to be quickly on pace to test the significant $1.60 resistance level. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar's value against a basket of global currencies, is down half a cent to 72.07.
Meanwhile, integrated energy stocks are moving largely higher.
ConocoPhillips
(COP) - Get Report
is up 0.9% at $94.38,
BP
(BP) - Get Report
is 2.3% higher at $76.65,
Royal Dutch Shell
(RDS.A)
is advancing 3.7% at $88.34 and
Exxon Mobil
(XOM) - Get Report
is up fractionally at $94.88.
Oil service stocks are more mixed.
Halliburton
(HAL) - Get Report
is down 1.1% at $49.37 and
Transocean
(RIG) - Get Report
is shedding 1.8% to $158.45.
National Oilwell Varco
(NOV) - Get Report
is up 5.3% at $85.17.
The
U.S. Oil Fund ETF
(USO) - Get Report
, which closely tracks WTI futures prices, is 2.2% higher at $106.54.