U.S. crude futures retreated on 26 August, with NYMEX West Texas Intermediate for October delivery closing at $63.25 a barrel, down $1.55, or 2.39%. ICE Brent for the same month settled at $67.22, a decline of $1.58, or 2.3%, erasing the prior day’s gains. The pullback came ahead of and then alongside fresh inventory data. The American Petroleum Institute reported an unexpectedly small 974,000-barrel draw in crude stocks late Tuesday. Government figures released Wednesday showed commercial crude inventories fell by 2.392 million barrels last week, slightly exceeding consensus forecasts for a 2 million-barrel decline but far smaller than the previous week’s 6 million-barrel drop. Gasoline and distillate stocks fell 1.236 million and 1.786 million barrels, respectively, while supplies at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub slipped 838,000 barrels. Despite the across-the-board drawdowns, market sentiment turned cautious after Goldman Sachs told clients it expects Brent prices to slide to the low $50s a barrel by late 2026. The bank cited an anticipated 1.8 million-barrel-per-day surplus through 2026 that could add roughly 800 million barrels to global inventories, including a projected 270 million-barrel build in OECD stocks. Traders said the bearish long-term outlook, combined with resilient U.S. production and modest weekly inventory declines, weighed on near-term prices.