WTI crude (CLJ15.NYM) prices are taking another leg down, hovering at the $42 a barrel level after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that "U.S. crude oil inventories are at the highest level for this time of year in at least the last 80 years."

Related: EIA data for the week ending March 15, 2015

EIA reported commercial crude inventories increased by 9.6 million barrels from the previous week. Now at 458.5 million barrels. This follows a huge inventory build of 10.5 million barrels, reported late Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute. Analysts were expecting just 3.5 million.

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Jeff Mower, a director, Americas Oil News, told Yahoo Finance rising supplies are not a surprise because production remains high and refiners are in a seasonal slowdown. "A lot of refiners are down for maintenance and the crude has no place to go." The stronger U.S. dollar has also been a drag on oil prices, however Mower says that is almost irrelevant. "You need to look at the bigger picture," which is ballooning supplies. "There is this connection but it's not really a one-to-one connection considering what's going on fundamentally."

The dollar, as measured by the PowerShares DB US Dollar Bullish ETF (UUP), is little changed today ahead of the Federal Reserve's 2pm ET statement which will be followed by a live press conference and Q&A session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday:

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported an increase in crude supplies of 10.5 million barrels for the week ended March 13, according to sources. Analysts surveyed by Platts forecast a crude-supply climb of 3.7 million barrels. Sources said the API reported that gasoline stockpiles fell by 583,000 barrels, while distillate inventories fell 252,000 barrels. The watched Energy Information Administration report is due Wednesday.