Oil Falls Below $79 a Barrel Following Inventory Report
Oil fell more than $1 to below $79 a barrel early Wednesday following a report that showed crude inventories improved last week, Bloomberg reported.
Benchmark light sweet crude futures fell $1.06 to $78.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in early trading following the Energy Department’s weekly report that showed stockpiles rose 800,000 barrels last week.
Gasoline inventories also improved, gaining 1.6 million barrels for the week ended Saturday, DOE said in its weekly report.
Distillate fuel stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.1 million barrels, DOE said.
Oil prices topped out at a one-year high $81.37 a barrel Nymex closing price last Wednesday. Since then prices have steadily declined, closing below $80 Monday and Tuesday.
