Oil Tops $80 a Barrel for First Time

Crude oil futures topped $80 a barrel for the first time and closed at a record high for a second straight day, finishing the trading day at $79.19 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Prices fell following a Department of Energy report Wednesday that showed crude inventories fell a greater-than-expected 7 million barrels last week, Bloomberg reported.

Another factor was Hurricane Humberto, which formed off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico, raising concerns on refinery-rich coastal areas, Bloomberg said.

The storm strenghtened from a tropical storm into a Category 1 hurricane, the weakest of five levels, overnight and came ashore near the Texas-Louisiana border early Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

DOE also said Wednesday in its weekly inventory report that gasoline inventories fell by 700,000 barrels and distillates, which include diesel, fell by 1.8 million barrels last week.