Energy markets witnessed a dramatic turnaround late Tuesday as the American Petroleum Institute's weekly snapshot revealed surprising developments in US crude stockpiles. Contrary to analyst expectations of inventory growth,cardano price prediction ,,000 the industry group reported significant drawdowns across multiple fuel categories.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the primary US benchmark, staged an impressive recovery following the data release. After closing the formal trading session down 1.8% at $76.96 per barrel, contracts rebounded to $77.28 in after-hours activity. This price action reflects traders reassessing supply fundamentals after the unexpected inventory reduction.
The API's measurements showed US crude reserves shrinking by approximately 3.9 million barrels during the week ending July 19. This contraction follows the previous week's 4.4 million barrel decline and stands in stark contrast to consensus forecasts anticipating a 700,000 barrel increase. The consecutive weekly reductions suggest tighter physical market conditions than many analysts had modeled.
Further supporting the bullish case, the report indicated shrinking product inventories. Gasoline supplies decreased by 2.8 million barrels, while distillate stocks (encompassing diesel and heating oil) fell by 1.5 million barrels. These coordinated drawdowns across crude and refined products point to robust fuel demand during the peak summer driving season.
Market participants now await confirmation from the Energy Information Administration's official inventory data scheduled for release Wednesday morning. The EIA report typically carries greater weight among institutional traders and serves as the definitive measure of US petroleum stock movements.
