WTI held above $75 today but did not extend yesterday's surge gains ahead of tonight's API print. After last week's surprise build, crude was expected to build again and did but it was Cushing that surprised with the biggest rise in stocks since March.

“It shows that the market is not convinced about the ability of the producers’ group to replace Iranian barrels”, said Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates Ltd. in London.

API

• Crude +907k (+1.5mm exp)
• Cushing +2.018mm (+800k exp) [Genscape +600k]
• Gasoline -1.703mm
• Distillates -1.197mm

A second weekly build for crude and the biggest weekly rise in Cushing stocks since March...

(Click on image to enlarge)

WTI hovered just above $75 ahead of the API print, holding most of yesterday's impressive gains, and thoroughly unimpressed at the crude builds from API...

(Click on image to enlarge)

“The market bounces around a lot”, Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research, said. “As of now, people are hedging on the side of fear rather than working the probabilities”.