Employment numbers come in below expectations
September 4, 2025
The API had crude oil inventories up 622,000, gasoline inventories down 4.5 million and displays up 3.6 million barrels.
The average estimates from the Bloomberg Survey are crude stocks down 2.258, gasoline down 1.685, distillates down 1.298.
The average estimate for today’s propane inventory update is for supplies to be up 2.1 million barrels.
Crude prices are trading lower today as the sentiment today is that OPEC+ may decide to increase their production and bring more barrels to the market at their meeting on Sunday. But other traders caution that OPEC+ has not even been able to bring all the additional barrels they have promised so far to the market, so take all this with a grain of salt. But if OPEC+ does announce an increase in production the sentiment itself will be bearish as we see prices move lower just on this headline.
Venezuela’s oil exports surpassed 900,000 bpd in August, the highest levels since November, after Chevron received a license that has allowed the OPEC country’s crude to return to the US market after a four month pause.
The ADP employment numbers came in below expectations. The actual number was 54,000 and the expectation was 68,000. Their initial jobless claims numbers were also higher than the estimates. Actual initial jobless claims were 237,000 and the expectation as for 230,000.