Oil Dips As Consuming Nations Mull Strategic Reserve Releases

Oil prices ignored a bullish EIA inventory report and dipped on Wednesday amid expectations that the U.S. could soon announce a release from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and other major consuming nations could follow suit with crude releases. Prices settled more than 2 percent lower on Wednesday and were trading down in early Asian trade on Thursday before reversing to slight gains in the morning EST in the U.S. WTI Crude prices are now down to the $78 handle, trading at $78.84, up by 0.51%, as of 9:56 a.m. EST, and Brent Crude was at…