FXStreet's Wednesday snapshot put West Texas Intermediate (WTI) near $85.70 a barrel as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast rising global inventories despite a recent draw in U.S. crude stocks.
FXStreet gave the quote at 2:07 a.m. ET (07:07 UTC) Wednesday and did not identify a futures contract. CME Group reported that WTI futures reached a low of $83.88 a barrel Tuesday before recovering. The December 2026 WTI futures contract settled at $86.04 a barrel, down $0.81, according to AEGIS Hedging.
In its Nov. 10 Short-Term Energy Outlook, completed Nov. 5, the EIA put the global inventory increase at 3.5 million barrels per day from January through June 2027. It forecast annual average WTI spot prices of $88 a barrel in 2026 and $81 in 2027. The agency said supply disruption risks and longer shipping routes could blunt the price impact of rising stocks in the near term. Middle East production shut-ins averaged 2.5 million barrels per day in October, down from a May peak of 10.9 million, and the EIA expects additional export routes to help ease outages over time.
The outlook was completed before this week's diplomatic statements. President Donald Trump said in a Nov. 9 post, after speaking with Qatar’s prime minister, that he saw “positive momentum” toward ending the conflict while leaving open the option of further U.S. military action. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Paris on Nov. 10 that the U.S. economic campaign meant major combat operations were not needed for now. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, dismissed reports of talks as “imaginary.”
The latest EIA weekly data showed U.S. commercial crude stocks fell by 0.9 million barrels to 409.8 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 30. The agency also linked a 14.1 million-barrel decline in commercial stocks during October to the Brent-WTI price gap, which made U.S. crude more attractive to export and less attractive to import. The next weekly report is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12, with releases at noon and 2 p.m. ET (17:00 and 19:00 UTC).
