Oil settles down; build in US fuel inventories offsets signs demand growing

Written by Arate Somasekhar

Houston (Reuters) -Oil prices stabilized on Wednesday, as American fuel inventory builds and concerns about the broader economic impact of American definitions that exceed some signs of increasing demand.

Brent crude futures settled 19 cents, or 0.3 % less, at $ 68.52 a barrel. Raw raw materials in West Texas decreased 14 cents, or 0.2 %, at $ 66.38.

Energy Information Administration said that US gasoline shares rose by 3.4 million barrels last week. Analysts expected a million barrels.

Environmental impact evaluation data showed that distillation stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, increased by 4.2 million barrels.

The environmental impact evaluation said that raw stocks decreased by 3.9 million barrels to 422.2 million barrels last week, which exceeds expectations compared to 552,000 barrels.

“I think the market is disappointed to see large structures in gasoline stocks and cut them as refining refineries work at its nearest levels in the year when oil turns into repeated products,” said Andrew Life, president of Lipow Oil Associats, in reference to the filter rates of approximately 94 % of the total capabilities.

He added: “I think the investors are also disappointed to see the demand for gasoline after only July, where we are now in the peak summer leadership season.”

The amount of products provided for gasoline, an agent for the order, and decreased 670,000 barrels per day to 8.5 million barrels per day.

The US President Donald Trump’s tariff war continued, as the European Commission has prepared a possible revenge if talks with Washington failed to obtain a trade agreement for the European Union.

On Monday, Trump said that the United States will impose a “very severe tariff” on Russia in 50 days if there is no deal to stop the war in Ukraine.

Futures for interest rates in the United States increased in the short term after a report that Trump was likely to shoot the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell soon, as traders are now betting on the price cuts that start in September and at least another by December.

Trump said he was not planning to shoot Powell, but he refused to exclude anything. Interest rates usually enhance economic activity and energy demand.

The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that it has increased economic activity in the United States in recent weeks, but the expectations have been neutral to somewhat pessimistic.

The monthly OPEC report expects that the global economy will be better in the second half of the year. She added that Brazil, China and India go beyond expectations while the United States and the European Union recover from last year.

Merchants and analysts said that the state -owned Chinese refineries increase production after the completion of maintenance to meet the highest fuel demand in the third quarter and rebuild diesel and gasoline stocks at its lowest levels in multiple years.

Barclays estimated that the Chinese oil demand in the first half of the year grew by 400,000 barrels per day on an annual basis to 17.2 million barrels per day.

On the supply side, two officials in the Kurdistan region in the Kurdistan region in Iraq in the Karadestan region in Iraq, where two energy energy, said on Wednesday, where the structure of the infrastructure forced multiple closure.

(Participated in additional reports from Ahmed Ghaddar, Colin Hao and Tixie, written by Margareta Choi, Barbara Lewis and David Gregorio)