West TX Oil Edges Above $98 Before U.S. Stockpiles Data

West Texas Intermediate crude slid after a three-day advance before the release of fuel-supply data from the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer.

Futures fell as much as 0.3 percent. Total U.S. crude inventories may have declined for a seventh time in the week ended Aug. 8 while volumes at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI contracts, probably rose, according to a Bloomberg survey before an Energy Information Administration report tomorrow. Gasoline supplies shrank while distillate stockpiles grew, according to the survey.

“We’ve reversed all of the overnight gains we saw for West Texas and that’s not surprising, there’s a clear trend downward here,” said Michael McCarthy, a chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney. “The market continues to focus on supply.”

Bloomberg