Key Facts
US crude inventories saw a surprise build of 9.072 million barrels the American Petroleum Institute reported, smashing expectations for a 500,000-barrel draw and the prior week’s 2.69-million-barrel rise.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz sank to just six commodity vessels on Monday down from an 11-ship ten-day average, as Iran stated the waterway will remain closed until the United States ends the war and meets Tehran’s conditions.
The WTI-tracking USO fund settled at US$127.61 a gain of 1.34 percent on the day, reflecting persistent supply-fear premiums even as a surprising stockbuild in the United States argued for looser physical markets.
Petrobras’s New York shares fell 2.18 percent to US$17.93 bucking the crude rally as local Brazilian political noise and a sharp 2.50 percent drop in the Ibovespa index dragged the state-controlled producer lower.
