Oil Holds Over $100 a Barrel

Oil slipped from a five-week high but remained over $100 for a fourth day in early trading Thursday, Bloomberg reported.

Crude futures slipped about 75 cents to near $101 a barrel after closing at a five-month high $101.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday, Bloomberg said.

This week marked the first time since the first week in January oil has closed over $100 every trading day. Crude has not finished over that level for a full five-day, non-holiday week, since late April.

The recent upturn in oil prices — which led to an 8.7-cent jump in diesel prices this week and have pushed gasoline higher in the past two months — could imperil the budding economic recovery, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday in a front-page story.