Oil Slips After Topping $90 a Barrel

Oil declined Wednesday a day after topping $90 a barrel, following a Department of Energy report that showed higher gasoline and diesel inventories, Bloomberg reported.

Crude futures fell 41 cents to finish the trading day at $88.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after topping $90 in intraday trading on Tuesday, the highest level since October 2008.

Monday’s $89.38 per-barrel Nymex closing price was the highest since October 2008, when oil was falling from its record high levels of that summer.

Gasoline inventories rose 3.8 million barrels for the week ended Saturday, DOE reported in its weekly survey. That was in contrast to the 300,000-barrel decline forecast by economists, Bloomberg reported.

Distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, rose 2.15 million barrels, in contrast to the 900,000-barrel decline forecast.

Oil supplies fell by 3.8 million barrels, more than the 1.4 million-barrel drop predicted, Bloomberg said.