Oil Steady Despite Crude Inventory Build

Crude oil inventories in the United rose by 1.643 million barrels for the week ending October 18, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API). Analysts had expected a build of 700,000 barrels. For the week prior, the API reported a 1.58-million-barrel draw in crude inventories. So far this year, crude oil inventories have slumped by nearly 6 million barrels since the beginning of the year, according to API data. On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by…