Welcome to Seeking Office Wall Street Lunch.

Our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Wednesday, September 27th, and I'm your host Kim Kahn.

Our top story so far.

U.S. crude oil stockpiles at the Cushing Oklahoma Storage Hub have shrunk to their lowest level

in 14 months, causing concerns about the quality of the remaining oil and the potential

to fall below minimum operating levels.

Further drawdowns at Cushing also would compound an already tight market due to Saudi

and Russian oil supply cuts, potentially adding to upward pressure on

oil prices.

Since topping 43 million barrels in June to reach a two-year high, Cushing's inventory levels

plunged nearly in half to just below 23 million barrels by September 15th, the lowest in July 2022,

and analysts expect another draw of as much as 1 million barrels in the week ending September 22nd. Tank storage below 20

million barrels or 10 to 20 percent of Cushing's 98 million plus barrels of

capacity is considered close to an operational low because the oil is difficult to remove at such levels

among other problems. Strong refining demand, rising crude exports, and future prices that have

been weaker than spot prices have drained Cushing's tank farms, and let's say.

Oil prices up about 30% since the middle of the year.

J.P. Morgan says the oil price rise is a supply shock but a modest one thus far.

Strategists say this shock is not large enough to threaten the expansion by itself.

However, there are concerns that the supply cuts are not finished or that they interact with a combination of other

modest negative U.S. shocks such as an escalation of the UAW strike, a government shutdown,

...