After dropping to an intra-session low of $70.45 in Asia, crude oil futures have steadily recovered in electronic trading, and the CME Group’s January light sweet crude future was last changing hands around $71. Wednesday marked the oil market's sixth consecutive down day, as US demand worries overshadowed an apparent improvement in crude inventories.
Many investors appeared to shrug off the unexpected 3.8 million barrels draw-down in crude inventories, which beat expectations of a 0.25 million build.
The data also showed that gasoline stocks actually rose by 2.2 million barrels against expectations of a 1.6 million build, similarly other distillates and petroleum stockpiles also increased, implying weak demand for the refined fuel products.
In New York oil and gas majors mostly followed the crude market, generally rebounding from recent losses. Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) both led the sector, rising more than 1% each, also rising were Murphy Oil Corp (NYSE: MUR) and Total SA (NYSE: TOT) which both advanced around two thirds of a percent.
Canadian producer EnCana (NYSE: ECA) had marginal gains, rising just a few cents, while ExxonMobil (NYSE: XON) moved the other way, falling by a quarter of a percent.