Crude Oil Drops Despite Stocks Data

Crude oil fell late yesterday, and has followed through lower this morning despite figures from the US Energy Information Administration saying that US inventories fell 3.7 million barrels last week. That's more than the 1.5-2.0 million that the market had been expecting, and the fourth weekly drop in a row.

The market instead chose to focus on rising gasoline and distillates stocks instead, which rose by 2.3 and 2.9 million barrels respectively.

A firmer dollar is also hurting crude this morning, which currently stands $1.06 lower at $68.25/barrel.