Lynne Kiesling
Following on from yesterday ... today OPEC did hold their quotas steady, and US crude oil inventories surged:
U.S. crude-oil inventories jumped 4.5 percent to 335.1 million in the four weeks ended March 3, leaving supplies at the highest since May 1999. Last week's gain was the biggest since Oct. 29, 2004, the report showed. The increase left supplies 14 percent above the five-year average for the week, the department said. Inventories were 12 percent above average a week ago.
The increase of 6.8 million barrels exceeded the analysts' expectations of 1.6 million barrels. Wowie!
I wonder what the analysts missed? Ever notice that analysts state that companies miss their earnings expectations, not that the analysts failed in their predictions. Heck, the company actually had to produce something.
For a little perspective, 335 million bbl is a fair bit less than 3 weeks of inventory at current usage rates. 6.8 million bbl is about 8-9 hours worth of oil for the US. This kind of looks like just in time inventory to me.