Higher than Expected Inflation Data
February 14, 2024
The API called crude oil inventories up 8.52 million barrels, gasoline supplies down 7.23 million barrels, and distillates down 4.016 million barrels and the crude oil stocks at Cushing, Ok were called up 512,000 barrels.
The average estimate for today’s DOE government inventory update from the Bloomberg survey is calling for crude oil stocks to be up 3.299 million barrels, gasoline stocks down 1.758 million barrels and distillate stocks down 1.897 million barrels.
The CPI was released yesterday and just added to the mix signals for the economy. Inflation has been falling for roughly a year and a half and the economy has generally improved. But yesterday’s CPI number was higher than the economist forecast, and the S&P 500 fell 1.4% in repose.
The CPI was up 0.3% and the expectation was up 0.2%. This takes the year on year to up 3.1%. The market was looking and hoping for the number to be up 2.9%. The core CPI is up 3.9% from a year ago, this is unchanged from December.
An unplanned power outage at Whiting, In oil refinery on February 1st is contributing to the large fuel stock drops and crude oil stocks rising. Whiting is the largest refinery in the Midwest at 435,000 bpd.
The estimate for the propane inventory update today is for stocks to have declined by 2.4 million barrels.