The quote above is the live front-month WTI Crude Oil futures price, the same feed used across Commodity Hub. The rest of this page explains what actually moves that number — the supply and demand drivers, how the forward curve behaves, the seasonal pattern, how to read positioning, and the recurring reports worth watching.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is the U.S. benchmark crude oil grade, priced off light, sweet crude delivered at Cushing, Oklahoma. It is the reference price behind most U.S. gasoline and diesel costs, and the crude leg of the NYMEX futures contract that refiners, producers, and traders use to hedge and speculate on oil prices.
WTI is the pricing anchor for U.S. light, sweet crude delivered at Cushing, Oklahoma, so its day-to-day moves track the balance between American production, refinery demand, and how full the Cushing tank farm is. The single most-watched input is the weekly EIA Petroleum Status Report: a crude build well above the seasonal norm pressures WTI, a draw supports it, and the market reacts within seconds of the 10:30 a.m. ET release.
On the supply side, OPEC+ policy sets the global backdrop. When the group adds or withholds barrels it shifts the world balance WTI is priced against, even though none of those barrels are American. U.S. shale output — reported with a lag in the EIA's monthly data and previewed by the Baker Hughes rig count each Friday — is the domestic counterweight.
Demand runs on the economic cycle and the season. Refinery run rates climb into summer driving season and the switch to winter heating fuels, and fall during spring and autumn maintenance turnarounds. A weaker U.S. dollar makes dollar-priced crude cheaper for foreign buyers and tends to lift WTI; a stronger dollar does the reverse. Geopolitics adds the tail risk — conflict near producing regions or shipping chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz can add several dollars of risk premium in a single session.
WTI's forward curve spends most of its time in mild backwardation — prompt barrels priced above deferred — because storing physical crude costs money and buyers usually pay up for immediate supply. It tips into contango when the front of the market is oversupplied: a Cushing inventory build, a refinery outage, or a demand shock. The front spread (first month minus second month) is the quickest read on physical tightness, and because WTI settles against physical delivery at Cushing it can diverge sharply from Brent when the bottleneck is specifically there.
For the mechanics of reading a curve month by month, see contango vs. backwardation and the roll yield calculator.
Crude itself is only loosely seasonal, but its demand drivers are not. Refiners buy crude ahead of the summer driving season, so spring often brings firmer crude demand and widening gasoline crack spreads; the autumn shoulder months bring maintenance season and softer runs before winter heating demand picks up. These patterns are real but are easily overwhelmed by supply news in any given year, so they belong in the background of a view rather than at the front of one.
For WTI the COT line to watch is managed-money net length in the combined NYMEX and ICE WTI contracts. Speculators are structurally long crude, so the signal is not the sign but the extreme: net length in the top decile of its multi-year range has historically preceded pullbacks, because the pool of new buyers is thin and a fast unwind can accelerate a sell-off regardless of fundamentals. Read it against price — a rally on falling net length is climbing a wall of worry; a rally on surging net length is more fragile.
Background: how to read the COT report.
The market data calendar lists when these are released.
Relevant background: crack spreads, contango and backwardation, and roll yield.
What is the ticker for WTI crude oil futures?
The NYMEX WTI light sweet crude contract trades under the symbol CL, shown as CL=F for the continuous front-month series. Each contract is 1,000 barrels, and the front month stops trading around the third business day before the 25th of the month before delivery.
Why is WTI usually cheaper than Brent?
WTI is landlocked at Cushing, Oklahoma, and has to be piped or railed to the coast to reach the export market, so it typically trades at a few dollars' discount to waterborne Brent to cover that transport cost. The spread widens when U.S. production is high relative to pipeline capacity and narrows when global seaborne supply is tight.
What time is the EIA oil inventory report released?
10:30 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday most weeks, pushed to Thursday when there is a Monday holiday. It is the highest-frequency official read on the U.S. crude balance and routinely moves WTI by a dollar or more.
Does a strong U.S. dollar push oil prices down?
Usually, at the margin. Crude is priced in dollars worldwide, so a stronger dollar raises the local-currency cost for non-U.S. buyers and tends to soften demand and price. It is one input among many — a genuine supply disruption will override the currency effect.
Commodity Hub tracks WTI Crude Oil alongside 30 other commodities with historical charts, forward curves, COT positioning, seasonality, and price alerts. Open the app to see it live, or browse the full commodity list.