WTI crude oil fell after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly Crude Oil Inventories report, which measures the weekly change in the number of barrels of commercial crude oil held by U.S. firms.
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Compared to last week, inventories fell by 1.694 million barrels. For reference, economists were expecting an increase of 395,000 barrels week-over-week. This means that demand was much stronger than anticipated. Nevertheless, WTI crude slipped 1.19% to settle at $76.66 per barrel.
On the other hand, natural gas plunged by 5.06% to close at $2.551 per MMBtu. This is likely attributable to the EIA’s outlook, where it lowered its forecast for natural gas prices in 2023 and 2024. Indeed, it now expects an average price of $3.02 per MMBtu compared to its previous forecast of $3.40.
Unsurprisingly, the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) is also down today. As a result, it is down 0.93% over the past five trading days, as indicated by the graphic below.
Here is a list of energy stocks that can be influenced by the latest developments in the energy markets.
