Crude oil trading alert: Oil prices fall nearly 3% as Fed expects economic growth to slow, wary of Russia again offering "gas weapons" to Europe

During the Asian session on Thursday (June 16), U.S. oil is now at $116.64 per barrel. Oil prices fell more than 2.7% on Wednesday, as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates and is expected to anticipate a slowdown in economic growth, adding resistance to crude oil's recent gains, coupled with an unexpected increase in U.S. crude inventories last week, dragging prices lower.

During the day, the focus of attention on the U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ended June 6, the U.S. monthly rate of construction permits in May preliminary value.

Short-side factors affecting oil prices

[U.S. crude oil inventories unexpectedly increased last week].

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday that U.S. crude oil and distillate inventories increased and gasoline inventories fell in the week ended June 10.

Crude oil inventories unexpectedly increased by 2 million barrels last week to 418.7 million barrels, compared with a Reuters poll estimate of a 1.3 million barrel decrease. However, crude stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) plunged by 7.7 million barrels, the largest drop on record.

Crude oil inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, fell by 826,000 barrels last week, and refinery processing fell by 67,000 barrels per day last week, the EIA said. Refinery capacity utilization fell 0.5 percentage points. Gasoline stocks unexpectedly fell by 700,000 barrels to 217.5 million barrels, compared with analysts' estimates in a Reuters poll for an increase of 1.1 million barrels?