Oil Prices - May 18

[dan_s]

The roller coaster ride continues.

In a market that consumes over 22 million bbls of oil per day, swings like this are to be expected.

"Prices rose early in the day after the American Petroleum Institute said its survey found that U.S. gasoline supplies fell unexpectedly by 676,000 barrels last week. Analysts are expecting supplies of gasoline and distillates such as diesel fuel to rise following weeks of slumping consumer demand."

What's more important are the rolling blackouts in China. China will be burning up a lot of diesel fuel this summer for power generation.

Oil is traded on the World Market. Over-reaction to the U.S. inventory reports is foolish.