Oil Declines to $122 a Barrel

Crude oil continued its recent slide Wednesday, falling $2 to close at $122.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.

The decline followed a Department of Energy report that showed gasoline and distillate inventories improved last week.

Oil fell by more than $3 a barrel on Tuesday after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled the Fed may halt its interest-rate cuts. The weaker U.S. dollar has helped push commodity prices higher, including oil, Bloomberg said.

DOE said that gasoline stockpiles rose 2.9 million barrels last week, while distillates, which include diesel, improved by 2.3 million barrels.

Crude stockpiles fell by 4.8 million barrels last week, DOE said in its weekly inventory report released Wednesday.

Oil had set a closing-price Nymex record of $133.17 on May 21, then topped out at $135.09 on May 22, an overall intraday record.

The closing price has hovered at about $126 to $127 a barrel in the last week, after closing at $131.03 last Wednesday.