WTI Unable To Penetrate $100 Level

WTI crude oil lost about 0.83% on Tuesday. The market’s sentiment shifted sour, augmenting appetite for safe-haven assets to the detriment of commodity prices as the US crude oil slides for the first time in this week. WTI traded at $95.51 per barrel following the report after settling down $1.72 at $94.98 per barrel.

According to the Department of the Treasury, previous releases from SPR and foreign partners brought gasoline prices down by 40 cents per gallon.

Risk-off mood dented traders’ appetite for oil. US companies reporting earnings, and one of the biggest US retailers, blaming high inflation as one of the factors that spurred a slash in profits, kept investors on their toes.

On Tuesday, earlier in the American session, EU countries agreed to reduce gas use for the following winter, which was cheered by oil bears. On the US front, the White House announced it would sell 20 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

US crude inventories decreased by about 4.0 million barrels for the week ended July 22. That compared with 1.9 million barrels reported by the API for the previous week while economists expected a decline of about 1.1 million barrels.

The fall in crude inventories arrived just as the International Monetary Fund cut its outlook on global growth and warned that high inflation threatens to tip the global economy into recession.

The official government inventory report due Wednesday is expected to show weekly US crude supplies fell by about 1.0 million barrels last week.