API Report Change Heightens Trader Curiosity

this article is dated 27 Jan 2009 , so API reporting time change effective from this date.

asr: basically we have API (industry consortium ) , EIA (govt.) and we have
Bloomberg/Reuters avarage analyst expected numbers
McGraw Hill energy service agency expected numbers

Starting this week, the American Petroleum Institute's (API)weekly statistics will be released on inventory Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. ET. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA)petroleum report will come out Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. ET. An API spokeswoman says the move was made to prevent the API data from impacting trading. However, electronic trading on CME Globex runs until 5:15 p.m. ET, restarts again at 6 p.m. and runs through the night.

Releasing the API numbers after the floor session ends may dull the dramatic, knee-jerk reaction we often see after the data comes out on Wednesday morning. Yet, to the extent that traders hold much faith in the government's weekly oil supply reports, even fewer traders appear to follow the API data very closely. Many traders tell me they are skeptical of the industry's data because a company's participation is voluntary. They believe the government's data seems more credible.

Still, a number of veterans of the NYMEX floor said they'll be at their computers this afternoon, waiting for the API numbers. For now, the initial time change has heightened their curiosity.