US crude oil inventories unexpectedly increased sharply

As of the week ending November 6, U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 9 million barrels, contrary to the market expectation of a decrease of 1 million barrels, reversing the previous week's decline of 5.267 million barrels. This marks the first inventory increase in six weeks. During the same period, gasoline inventories rose by only 4,000 barrels, a significant slowdown compared to the previous week's increase of 1.427 million barrels; distillate inventories increased by 1.5 million barrels, whereas in the prior week they had decreased by 270,000 barrels. Cushing region inventories rose by 182,000 barrels, compared to a previous increase of 511,000 barrels. In addition, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) released 2.7 million barrels of crude oil to supplement commercial inventories, bringing the total SPR inventory down to 279.5 million barrels. As of the week ending October 30, U.S. crude oil production reached a record 14.003 million barrels per day, up from 13.992 million barrels per day the previous week.