Surprise build helps to reverse some of the gains
The price of the crude oil futures in the US are closing down -$1.20 or -1.62% at $72.94
The high for the day reached $74.90. The low extended to $72.53.
Today, the EIA released the inventory data for the current week. The crude oil inventories showed a surprise build of 1245K vs -5000k expected. The private API data last night showed a -4500K drawdown.
Saudi Arabia also reported that they pumped 10.5B BPD in June. That was up from 10.27B in May. Pres. Trump wants the Saudi's to increase production by 2B per day. That might not be so easy.
Higher oil prices are not good for the Trump base (it is a tax in a year that he cut taxes and there may be other hardships from the tariff wars), but from his tweet today, he is already pointing the finger at OPEC. If you can't win....blame.
PS. Iran's oil minister later said "Oil prices above $100 is yet to come and Trump is the one to blame". Of course, Pres. Trump opted out of the Iran deal and it is the Iranian oil and Venezuelan oil that he is trying to replace with Saudi oil.
