An ugly day in the energy complex saw WTI tumble to a $53 handle as US-China trade tensions were anything but calmed (despite the equity market's exuberance).

“We shouldn’t underestimate the potential impact of a full-blown trade war between the world’s two biggest economies,” said Bart Melek, head of global commodity strategy at TD Securities.

“This could very well mean we as a market significantly overestimated demand growth for oil and we could easily be in a surplus situation in 2020.”

API

• Crude -3.43mm (-2.8mm exp)
• Cushing -1.6mm
• Gasoline -1.1mm (-1.2mm exp)
• Distillates +1.2mm (+200k exp)

Crude stocks fell for the 8th week in a row, with a bigger than expected draw of 3.43mm barrels last week.

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WTI accelerated its losses into the NYMEX close and hovered around $53.80 ahead of the API print and barely budged after the data hit...

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It would appear trade uncertainty is trumping (pun intended) supply fears.

#Oil Price Movements and Key Oil Market Events pic.twitter.com/Pb1CJbveDy

— 𝕮𝖍𝖎 🛢️ (@chigrl) August 3, 2019