A tropical storm helped boost exchange traded funds (ETFs) that follow the oil price movements earlier this month; however, oil ETFs were slightly down Wednesday.
U.S. Oil Fund (NYSEArca: USO) and U.S.12 Month Oil (NYSEArca: USL) were off 0.63% and 1.09%, respectively.
Benchmark crude was slightly up, hovering below $90 a barrel, reports Chris Kahn for the Associated Press.
The Tropical Storm Lee damaged oil platforms along the Gulf earlier this month, which halted production by as much as 900,000 barrels a day.
The Energy Information Administration stated that oil inventories diminished by a greater-than-anticipated 7.3 million barrels last week mostly as a result of the Tropical Storm.
However, the drop in supplies should not be interpreted as a signal that the economy in need of more as the “global market isn’t really tightening,” Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, remarked.