WTI trades near $73, looks to settle in the red for the second straight day

• EIA report shows a 1.2 million build in crude stocks.
• Crude oil extends correction into the second day on Thursday.
• Iranian OPEC official blames for the rising prices.

Crude oil remains on track to record losses for the second day in a row on Thursday as an unexpected increase in the crude oil stocks in the United States didn’t allow for a recovery attempt in the NA session.

“An unexpected build in the U.S. commercial crude inventory has prompted profit-taking,” Abhishek Kumar, Senior Energy Analyst at Interfax Energy in London,  told Reuters. As of writing, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate was trading at $73.10, losing $1, or 1.3%, on the day.

Earlier today, U.S. President Donald Trump, once again, commented on oil prices via Twitter: “The OPEC Monopoly must remember that gas prices are up & they are doing little to help. If anything, they are driving prices higher as the United States defends many of their members for very little $’s,” Trump wrote.  

Responding to Trump’s recent activity on Twitter, Iranian OPEC Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili argued that Trump was the one to point the finger to for the increasing crude oil prices.  “The responsibility of paying unnecessary prices for oil by all consumers of the whole world, especially in U.S. gas stations, is solely upon your (Trump’s) shoulders and the price of over $100 per barrel is yet to come,” Kazempour told Reuters.

The next data of relevance will be the weekly Baker Hughes oil rig count that will be released on Friday.

Technical outlook:  Crude Oil WTI: Oil falls on EIA and finds support at $73.00 a barrel