Crude oil is unrefined petroleum extracted from underground reservoirs and refined into products such as petrol, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, and petrochemicals. In financial markets it trades as one of the most active commodities.
Crude oil trades against two main benchmarks: Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate (WTI). You can take exposure through futures, options, exchange-traded funds, energy stocks, or oil CFDs.
Crude oil prices move on supply, demand, inventory data, OPEC+ production decisions, geopolitical risk, refinery demand, shipping conditions, and global growth expectations. Tighter supply or stronger demand pushes prices up, while rising inventories or weak demand pushes them down.
You follow WTI crude oil because you expect US inventory data to move the price. WTI trades at USD 75 per barrel before the weekly inventory report.
A larger-than-expected drop in inventories points to tighter supply, and WTI may rise from USD 75 to USD 77 per barrel. A larger-than-expected build points to excess supply, and WTI may fall from USD 75 to USD 73 per barrel.