Crude oil prices hit fresh 6.5-year lows on Wednesday, and the trigger seems to be the most recent U.S. commercial crude oil inventories number reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Inventories were widely expected to continue falling from all-time highs reached back in April, but the latest number indicated a surprise uptick, which sent ripples throughout the market.

The Numbers

Analyst consensus expectations for last week’s numbers were for an inventory decrease of 777,000 barrels on the week. Instead, the EIA reported an increase of 2.6 million barrels to 456.2 million. This number is still well short of the all-time inventory high of 490.9 million barrels reported back in April, but it is still extremely high from a historical perspective and is headed in the wrong direction compared to the prior week.

Prior to 2015, the EIA had never reported inventory levels that had breached the 400 million level.

The Market Reacts

The unexpected bad news sent…

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