Oil Holds Under $95 a Barrel
Oil rose 14 cents Thursday, holding under $95 a barrel a day after falling to the lowest closing price in almost four months, Bloomberg reported.
Crude futures closed at $94.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said. Wednesday’s closing price was the lowest since Feb. 22.
Wednesday’s decline of more than $4 was due in part due to slower-than-expected manufacturing activity, a stronger U.S. dollar and concern over Europe’s debt crisis, Bloomberg said.
Oil inventories fell 3.4 million barrels last week, the Department of Energy said, a bigger drop than the 1.8 million-barrel decline forecast by economists, Bloomberg reported.
Gasoline stockpiles rose 600,000 barrels, while distillates, which include diesel, slipped by 100,000 barrels for the week ended Saturday, DOE said in its weekly report.
Distillate demand sank 5.2% to 3.6 million barrels a day, a 5-month low, and gasoline wholesale futures fell by more than 12 cents on the Nymex, Bloomberg said.
