Investing.com — U.S. crude oil futures inched off lows post-settlement trading Wednesday after the American Petroleum Institute reported a larger-than-expected decline in weekly domestic crude stocks.
, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $69.30 a barrel following the report after settling down 1.6%% at $69.20 a barrel.
decreased by about 7.4M barrels for the week ended Aug. 30, compared with a decline of 3.4M barrels reported by the API for the previous week. Economists were expecting a decline of just 900,000 barrels.
Gasoline stockpiles fell by about 300,000 barrels, while distillate inventories — the class of fuels that includes diesel and — fell by 400,000 barrels.
The report is due Thursday at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT).