Energy stocks stumble as U.S. crude oil inventories surge higher
SlavkoSereda

Crude oil futures fell Wednesday after the latest weekly U.S. data showed commercial crude inventories spiked by a whopping 16.3M barrels against expectations for a much smaller increase.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said stockpiles rose to 471.4M barrels, ~8% above the five-year average; analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would rise by just 800K barrels.
Refinery activity unexpectedly slowed down, with the weekly capacity utilization rate falling by 1.4 percentage points to 86.5%, compared to analyst forecasts for a 0.2 percentage point increase.
Front-month WTI crude (CL1:COM) for March delivery -1.9% to $77.48/bbl, while April Brent crude (CO1:COM) -1.5% at $84.30/bbl.
ETFs: (NYSEARCA:USO), (BNO), (UCO), (SCO), (DBO), (USL), (DRIP), (GUSH), (USOI), (NRGU)
Energy (XLE) is showing the widest loss among the 11 S&P sectors, including 10 of the day's 15 biggest losers: Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) -12.7%, Marathon Oil (MRO) -6.2%, Occidental Petroleum (OXY) -5.3%, Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) -5.3%, APA Corp. (APA) -4.7%, EOG Resources (EOG) -4.5%, Halliburton (HAL) -4%, Diamondback Energy (FANG) -3.9%, Hess (HES) -3.5%, EQT Corp. (EQT) -3.3%, Baker Hughes (BKR) -3%, Schlumberger (SLB) -3%.
The "enormous" weekly build to crude stocks mostly reflects refinery maintenance season nearing the peak of offline capacity, but "it's important to note that despite maintenance season leading to weakness in refinery runs, gasoline inventories continued to build," DTN market analyst Troy Vincent said.
Devon Energy (DVN) is the day's weakest performer on the S&P energy sector after missing Q4 earnings expectations.