Forexpros – U.S. crude oil inventories plunged the most in a decade sending oil prices sharply higher on the session
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for January settlement traded at USD98.77 a barrel during late U.S. trade soaring 1.57%.
It earlier hit a daily high of USD99.23 a barrel.
Strength in the U.S. dollar did little to stem the bullish crude price environment.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, gained 0.13% to trade at 80.34.
Dollar strength generally depresses commodity prices, as it lowers their appeal as an alternative asset and makes dollar priced commodities more expensive for holders of other currencies.
The U.S. Energy Department reported supplies fell 10.6 million barrels to 323.6 million. This booked the largest decline since 2001 and crushed the average analyst estimate by five fold.
Rich IIczyszynn of littrader.com exclaimed to Bloomberg, “This is a shocker and is going to be bullish for oil. This is definitely going to get some bears scared out of the market in the short term.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for February delivery advanced 1.02% to trade at USD107.81 a barrel, up USD9.04 on its U.S. Counterpart.
This nearly USD10.00 spread has been narrowing recently, but is still historically high. The two contracts traditionally trade within USD1.00 of each other.
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