API Crude Oil Inventories - decent draw on Crude and Distillate but build on Gasoline

Yesterday evening, February 7th 2012, at 21:30 GMT (16:30 EST) the Weekly Inventory Supply figures for Energy Items was released from the American Petroleum Institute or API. There was a decent draw, or lower deviation, on Crude compared to the previous week. Also a more modest draw in Distillate but actually a build on Gasoline. Recently it does appear that these Energy numbers are working better again with last week's DOE number working quite well, although in that case all 3 figures for Crude, Distillates and Gasoline deviated in the same direction. The past few weeks has seen more indecisive moves when the 3 do not agree. The API is released quite late in the day after most markets are closed so it does not get alot of attention. The Active Front-Month Crude Contract did move in the right direction indicated by the deviation in the data, but it was quite a small move. In the past moves of 20-40 ticks have been possible on this news trading this data.

Here is the Data:

API U.S Crude Oil Inventories
Actual: -4533k Prior: +2067K

API Cushing Crude OK Inventory
Actual: +385k Prior: +1482K

API U.S. Distillate Inventory
Actual: +386k Prior: +970K

API U.S. Gasoline Inventories
Actual: +4429k Prior: -222K

This is the 1 minute chart of the Crude Oil Future Contract. Perhaps it was possible to get 20 ticks from this but depends on if there was any slippage. Normally it is safer to wait for the larger deviations to bring larger moves so if there is any slippage there is good probability of seeing a continuation of the move past the initial spike reaction to trading the news data release. The Red Arrow indicated when the data was released, however this news is not always released exactly on time so we can see on the chart that the price started to react the minute before.