Shaking It Up in Weekly Oil Inventories (OIH, USO, OIL)

The weekly data on oil inventories from the Department of Energy is out and we are seeing another bullish yet mixed bag here in the numbers for oil prices.  We are also watching the Oil Services HOLDRs (NYSE: OIH), the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) ETF and the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN (NYSE: OIL) react to this news.

• Crude oil inventories fell by a sharp -4.73 million barrels to 332.75 million barrels. Dow Jones had estimates around -2.5 million barrels but we were looking for a level closer to -3 million barrels based upon trader discussions.
• Gasoline inventories did not show the same trend as gasoline inventory rose by +547,000 barrels for the week to 207.7 million barrels.  Dow Jones had estimates at a gain of 600,000 barrels, but we were looking for a flat figure with no real change.
• Distillates posted the biggest rise of 2.237 million barrels to 167.79 million barrels.
• Refining capacity ran at 86.94%, down form 87.2% a week ago.

The Oil Services HOLDRs (NYSE: OIH) has gained some steam here and is up 2.1% at $117.85.  The United States Oil (NYSE: USO) ETF has also popped on the news initially and is up over 0.5% at $36.91 after having been nin negative territory before the data. The iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN (NYSE: OIL) also went from negative to being sharply better and positive as shares are up 0.7% at $24.35.

Jon C. Ogg
September 16, 2009