WTI Crude Finds Technical Support After API Reports Smaller-Than-Expected Crude Build

Amid chaos across markets today, oil was relatively calm, ending lower on broad risk-off sentiment, finding technical support intraday ahead of Powell's Humphrey Hawkins testimony tomorrow.

“The anticipation of the Fed chairman holding interest rates steady into mid-year is a pressure point to crude prices,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president at BOK Financial.

“Higher interest rates will keep the US dollar elevated, which is a headwind for crude exports.”

API

• Crude +423k (+1.3mm exp)

• Cushing

• Gasoline (-1.4mm exp)

• Distillates (-400k exp)

Crude stocks rose just 423k barrels last week according to API, well below expectations...

Source: Bloomberg

WTI was trading around $78.175 ahead of the print and was unphased after...

WTI isholding above its 200DMA intraday...

Finally, China set its annual growth target at about 5%, raising expectations for officials to unleash more stimulus as they try to lift confidence in a slowing economy. However, the nation also set a more ambitious target for reducing the energy needed for economic expansion, or energy intensity, this year.

So that didn't help.