Oil up after 3-day drop as some war-risk premium creeps back in
Investing.com — Crude prices rose for the first time in four days, with global benchmark Brent recapturing key $90 per barrel pricing, as traders braced for the possibility of contagion from the Israel-Hamas war that could disrupt oil traffic in the Middle East — despite little evidence of such impact.
The rebound came despite a surprise tick up in stockpiles of both crude oil and gasoline in the United States last week.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude for December delivery, settled at $85.39, up $1.65, or 2% on the day. WTI had fallen just over 6% in three prior days.
UK-origin Brent crude for December delivery settled at $90.13, down up $2.06, or 2.3%. Brent was down nearly 5% over three prior sessions.
On the Israel-Hamas war front, Israeli forces battled on four fronts on Wednesday, striking targets in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria.
“It’s really hard to assign an appropriate war risk premium to crude now because the Middle East oil traffic hasn’t really been impacted by this conflict,” said John Kilduff, partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital. “Yet, concerns of a contagion remain, thus the reversion to risk on a day like this, when the market should probably be lower because of the build in US crude stocks.”
US crude oil stocks rose above the consensus of Wall Street analysts, with an unexpected rise at the federal level and at the storage hub tied to the delivery of contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a government report showed Wednesday.
The build in crude inventories for the week ended Oct. 20 came after a drop in exports, the Weekly Petroleum Status Report of the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, showed.
The US crude inventory balance rose
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