Oil futures settled at their highest level in a week on Wednesday following a volatile session, as Donald Trump claimed victory in an astonishing U.S. presidential election, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, December West Texas Intermediate crude rose 29 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $45.27 a barrel, the highest finish since November 2. Prices had earlier fallen from Tuesday’s settlement, trading at $44.87 before the supply data and had seen volatile trading in the wake of Trump’s victory.
January Brent crude, the global benchmark, added 32 cents, or 0.7%, to end trading at $46.36 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Early Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. crude supplies rose by 2.4 million barrels in the week ending November 4, following a record surge of more than 14 million barrels the week before. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expected a 1.6 million barrel climb, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a rise of 4.4 million barrels.
The EIA also revealed that total crude production for the week climbed by 170,000 barrels a day to 8.692 million barrels a day.
“The dramatic increase…in crude production is clearly bearish and should cause concern among the OPEC members trying to determine cuts and quotas,” said James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, December natural gas settled at $2.69 per million British thermal units, up 5.7 cents, or 2.2%, ahead of an EIA update on natural gas supplies due Thursday.