Highlights
Biden said late yesterday he will withhold weapons from Israel if it invades Rafah. Most news reports state Israel’s military went into Rafah on Tuesday.Â
Â
The main crude oil news yesterday was the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported in the morning an inventory draw-down of 1.4 million barrels for the week ending May 3rd, which was much different than last week’s build of 7.3 million barrels. On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute estimated crude oil inventories had added a half a million barrels in the week to May 3.
Â
The EIA also reported small inventory builds in gasoline and middle distillate inventories for the week. EIA reported distillates, after the previous week’s draw of 700,000 barrels, an inventory build of 600,000 barrels for the week to May 3rd. The EIA also reported demand for gasoline and diesel in the United States has reached its lowest seasonally since the onset of the COVID pandemic.
Â
Yesterday’s CBOT weakness was due to heavy profit-taking and some farmers selling due to fear of tomorrow’s USDA S&D report and some better chances of rain for the Kansas and Russian wheat crops. A hard sell-off after big up moves is perfectly normal and predictable before USDA reports.   Â