WTI plunged to a $61 handle, and 7-month lows, ahead of tonight's API inventory data as trade war anxiety raised global demand fears and Iran sanctions exemptions lifted supply concerns.

“Oil prices don’t have any real reason to rally significantly,” said Phil Streible, senior market strategist at R.J. O’Brien & Associates LLC in Chicago.

And things got worse as WTI extended its losses after API reported.

API

• Crude +7.831mm (+2mm exp)

• Cushing +3.073mm (+2.1mm exp)

• Gasoline -1.195mm

• Distillates -3.638mm

The seventh weekly build in Crude and Cushing inventory levels (both considerably higher than expected)...

WTI was hovering around $62.20 ahead of the API print but kneejerked lower

“The U.S. has for now given a lifeline to Iran,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director at Petromatrix GmbH in Zug, Switzerland. “The end result of the sanctions is softer than expected. The final outcome of the sanctions also confirms the political fear of high gasoline prices.”

And finally, Bloomberg's Javier Blas highlights perfectly why oil prices are sliding...

#Oil Watch: @EIAgov is painting a quite difficult year for #OPEC+ group, with crude stock-builds in every quarter until 4Q 2019 | #OOTT pic.twitter.com/GnXfR7P3Ce

— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) November 6, 2018