Oil Slips as Diesel, Gasoline Inventories Improve

Oil prices fell below $77 a barrel Wednesday following a Department of Energy report that showed diesel and gasoline inventories improved last week even though oil stockpiles declined, Bloomberg reported.

Crude futures fell about 50 cents in early New York Mercantile Exchange trading — a day after rising $2.20 to top $77 for the first time in three weeks, Bloomberg said.

Distillate inventories, which include diesel, rose by 2.9 million barrels last week, while gasoline gained 1.6 million barrels, DOE said.

Crude inventories fell 5.1 million barrels for the week ended Saturday, DOE said in its weekly report.