© Reuters.
By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com — U.S. crude stockpiles increased last week, the API reported Wednesday, confounding economists’ forecasts for a decline and adding to worries that slowing global growth is chipping away at energy demand.
, the U.S. benchmark, traded at $81.77 a barrel following the report after settling down 5.7% at $81.94 a barrel.
rose by 3.6 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 2. That compared with a build of 593,000 barrels reported by the API in the previous week. Economists were expecting a decline of about 733,000 barrels.
The API data also showed that gasoline inventories fell by 836,000 barrels last week, and distillate stocks decreased by 1.8 million barrels.
The official government inventory report due Thursday is expected to show weekly U.S. fell by about 250,000 barrels last week.
