Oil: an overview of the market situation

Oil prices rose today , while continuing yesterday's trend, against the background of the fact that the volume of U.S. inventories rose last week, less than expected.

Note that the data of the Department of Energy on changes in stocks in the U.S. for the last week have shown :

- Oil stocks rose 0.375 million barrels to 388.463 million barrels ( experts predict that oil reserves were increased by 1 million barrels)

- Gasoline inventories decreased by 0,345 million barrels . to 208.853 million barrels . ;

- Distillate stocks fell 4.795 million barrels . to 112.541 million barrels .

- Refining capacity utilization rate of 88.6 % versus 86.7 % a week earlier .

- Oil at the terminal in Cushing rose by 1.740 million barrels . - Up to 39.9 million reaching a peak in July

Recall that yesterday's report from the Institute of Oil API showed :

- Capacity utilization in the week 88.1 % vs. 86.9 %

- Distillate stocks fell this week to 4.91 million barrels

- Gasoline inventories for the week rose to 0.084 million barrels

- Crude oil inventories rose by 0.512 million barrels

The course of trading also affected the U.S. data , which showed that retail sales rose in October on the back of sustained growth of car purchases . But the weakness in key categories suggests that consumers are cautious in their spending in anticipation of the holiday shopping season . Sales of the country's retailers rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% compared with September , after a zero change in the previous month , the Commerce Department said on Wednesday . But with the exception of a strong automotive sector , sales increased by only 0.2 %, showing a slight decrease compared to the previous month .

Economists had predicted that total retail sales will grow by 0.1 %, while sales excluding autos to rise 0.2 %.

Total retail sales rose by 3.9 % compared with a year ago. Excluding autos and auto parts sales rose by 2.4 % compared with a year ago.

The focus of the market also remains publication of the minutes from the previous meeting of the Fed . On how the voting members of the Fed and what their thoughts are visiting during the meeting , will largely determine the future direction of the markets. However, the surprise here is probably not worth waiting for , even in spite of the fact that the participants in the recent times seems to have forgotten all about the folding of incentive programs .

The cost of the December futures on U.S. light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) rose to $ 93.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

January futures price for North Sea Brent crude oil mixture rose 66 cents to $ 107.76 a barrel on the London exchange ICE Futures Europe.