Oil prices fell on the day amid banking and debt ceiling fears weighing on consumer sentiment and knocking into broad market sentiment (and a stronger dollar did not help).

“The crude market is in wait-and-see mode with trading dominated by short term strategies as opposed to real investors,” said Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth.

“Longer-term investors aren’t going make real bets until there is clarity around China’s recovery and US recession.” Earnings are also likely pulling the focus to other asset classes, she added.

Meanwhile, as Bloomberg reports, shipments from Iraq’s north and the country’s Kurdish region remain halted - causing some tankers to leave ports there empty and indicating a resumption isn’t likely in coming days. Russian exports remain resilient, however, despite Moscow’s earlier pledge to cut production, blunting the impact of the disruptions in the Middle East.

API

API reported a far bigger than expected crude draw (over 6mm barrels vs 700k exp) and inventories at the Cushing Hub rose by 465k (breaking a 7 week streak of draws)...

Source: Bloomberg

WTI remains just above pre-OPEC+ production cut spike levels, hovering at $77.20 ahead of the API print and was barely changed after

Bear in mind that DOE reported Monday that it sold another 1.1 million barrels of crude oil last week from the SPR... aren't they supposed to be refilling that?