Crude oil inventory for the current week build 4.070M vs estimate 3.028M

• Prior week oil inventory build 8.664M
• Crude oil inventory buildup 4.070M versus 3.028M estimate
• Gasoline drawdown of -3.035M versus estimate of a build of 1.403M
• Distillate build of 0.135M vs drawdown of -1.539M estimate
• Cushing build of 0.872M vs. last week drawdown of -0.034M
• Weekly refining utilization 0.5% versus 0.5% expected. Previous +1.0%
• Crude production change 0.12% versus +1.8% last week

The price of crude oil is trading down $-1.20 or -1.62% at $72.13 . Looking at the hourly chart, the low price is moving closer to its rising 100 hour moving average at $71.93.. The price is also trading below its 200 hour moving average at $72.24.

With the price between those two moving averages, the price of crude oil is within a neutral technical area. Moving below the 100-hour moving average would be more bearish. Holding support here and bouncing back above the 200-hour moving average would give the dip buyers against the moving averages some comfort as long as the price remains above those moving averages.