Oil tumbles below $70 to its lowest level in nearly a month

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American flag hangs on the side of a Southern oil
refinery.
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• 
  Oil prices sank to their lowest point in nearly a month,
  with the US benchmark shedding nearly 3%.
• The Energy Information Agency reported a fourth week of US
  crude buildup. 
• 
  
  Watch oil trade in real time here.
  

Oil prices tumbled Wednesday to their lowest level since
September after government data showed US inventories rose more
than expected and as stocks paused an earlier rebound. 

West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, fell more than 3%
to below $70 a barrel. Brent
was trading at around $80 per barrel, down about 2% for the
session and more than 6% this week. 

Marking the highest buildup in nearly four months, the
Energy Information Administration said stockpiles of crude oil in
the US rose by 6.5 million barrels last week to more than 416
million barrels. That was more than twice the amount of buildup
than analysts had forecast. 

Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics,
thinks Hurricane Michael was partly behind a sharp drop in
exports. But she also noted stockpiles have been climbing for
four weeks, the longest streak of gains since last year. 

“But crude stocks have been building for some weeks and should
soon start to exert some downward pressure on prices,” she
added. 

Not helping the mood, US stocks were on track for
another round of losses Wednesday. Following a steep sell-off
across markets last week, Wall Street has remained on edge about
rising rates and global growth prospects.

“Although the current market conditions favor higher oil prices,
global trade tensions still remain a threat to oil bulls down the
road,” Lukman Otunuga, a research analyst at FXTM, wrote in an
email.

“Slowing global growth in the event of a full-blown trade war
will most likely dent demand for crude.”

Get the latest Oil WTI price here.