Prices for both benchmark had climbed by more than 1% Wednesday after U.S. government data showed an unexpectedly large fall in domestic crude inventories.
On its first full session as a front-month contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery CLK9, -0.03% on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 2 cents, or less than 0.05%, to $60.21 a barrel after tapping a high of $60.39. May Brent crude LCOK9, -0.53% shed 11 cents, or 0.2%, to $68.39 a barrel on ICE Futures Group.
U.S. benchmark WTI remains up more than 2% for the week and losses for crude Thursday were modest. U.S. equities headed broadly higher as investors digested the conclusion of a Federal Reserve meeting a day earlier that saw policy makers signal they would deliver no rate increases in 2019 amid concerns over global growth prospects.
The Energy Information Administration on Wednesday said U.S. crude inventories fell a sharper-than-expected 9.6 million barrels last week, while supplies of gasoline dropped 4.6 million barrels and distillates declined by 4.1 million barrels.
“Stocks normally increase at this time of the year, which makes the substantial inventory reduction all the more remarkable,” wrote analysts at Commerzbank.
“U.S. crude oil stocks meanwhile are slightly below the five-year average. The sizable inventory overhang that had still been in place until recently was thus eradicated completely. The U.S. oil market is no longer oversupplied, in other words, which should benefit WTI and result in further price convergence” with Brent futures, they said.
In other energy trade, April gasoline RBJ9, +0.65% rose 0.3% to $1.923 a gallon, while April heating oil HOJ9, -0.67% was off 0.6% at $1.997 a gallon.
April natural gas NGJ19, -0.07% fell 1.9 cents, or 0.6%, at $2.802 per million British thermal units.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas fell by 47 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 15. The data, however, included a slight upward revision to the previous week’s total stocks. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts had expected a decline of 48 billion cubic feet.
The United States Oil Fund LP (USO) was trading at $12.49 per share on Thursday afternoon, down $0.01 (-0.08%). Year-to-date, USO has gained 4.00%, versus a 6.95% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
USO currently has an ETF Daily News SMART Grade of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #1 of 108 ETFs in the Commodity ETFs category.
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