Modest gains in oil prices today after yesterday's Trump-tweet-driven tumble.

“OPEC didn’t listen to Trump back in December because they knew they needed to cut,” said Michael Loewen, a commodities strategist at Scotiabank in Toronto. “Trump’s tweets and his influence in the financial markets is quite apparent, but investors are starting to question whether or not they are relevant anymore.

API

Crude -4.2mm (3mm exp)

Cushing +2mm

Gasoline -3.8mm

Distillates +400k

After five straight weeks of crude builds, API reports a big surprise crude draw...

WTI hovered around $56.60 ahead of the print and spiked above $56 on the API data

“The market is now looking for its next driver,” said Gene McGillian, manager of market research at Tradition Energy. “A lot of it is going to depend on what seems to come out of these trade talks. If we don’t get any kind of agreement or it looks as if the ratcheting up of tariffs is going to go forward even though the president is going to delay it for a while, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see concerns about slowing demand growth resurface.”