Crude Oil Inventories in the United States rose more quickly than expected last week, with 5.88 million barrels added compared with a forecast of 4.4 million. This was still not enough to prevent the price of crude oil (WTI) from ending the day up 2.2% on the strength of renewed optimism regarding demand. The International Energy Agency estimates that oil demand should increase by 100,000 barrels a day in 2017. Moreover, OPEC produced 79,000 fewer barrels per day in August, a first decline since March.
Yesterday morning, the U.S. Producer Price Index came in slightly below the 2.5% analysts polled had estimated with an annualized reading of 2.4%. The greenback nevertheless fared well on the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), which measures its strength against a basket of currencies, with a gain of 0.70%. Meanwhile, the USD/CAD pair remained stable.
Today, we’ll be keeping an eye on the U.S. Consumer Price Index. It should be noted that U.S. inflation remains below the target of 2%, which in the eyes of the market is keeping the U.S. Federal Reserve from being more hawkish with its monetary policy.
Yusuf Kocagozli
Range of the day: 1.2100 – 1.2250