Oil Drops Most in Three Weeks Amid Falling Equities, Output Jump

Futures in New York slid 2.3 percent. Declines in the equity market, a rising dollar and concern that Trump’s tariff threats will spark a trade war acted as a downward force on crude oil. And at the same time, the Energy Information Administration reported American crude inventories rose by 2.41 million barrels last week, while production jumped to a fresh record.

There’s “concern that if the tariffs are imposed and we get into a trade war, it lowers overall global growth,” Craig Bethune, a senior portfolio manager at Manulife Asset Management, said by telephone.

The EIA report also showed gasoline supplies declined for the first time since January and distillate inventories fell for a fourth straight week. Stockpiles at the key U.S. storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma tumbled for an 11th week to the lowest since 2014. Crude inventories rose by 2.41 million barrels, lower than expectations.

“The build was much less than the 5.66 million barrel build that the API had reported last night, which may have spooked the market a bit,” said Nick Holmes, an analyst at Tortoise in Leawood, Kansas, which manages $16 billion in energy-related assets. Yet, “there is a lot of uncertainty in the market with tariffs and NAFTA banter from D.C. The market doesn’t like uncertainty, especially things that could potentially crimp GDP growth and overall crude demand.”
more detail at:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-07/oil-dips-on-inventory-fears-and-as-trump-trade-war-risk-rises