Oil futures fell below $92 U.S. a barrel Wednesday, pressured by a bigger-than-expected rise in last week’s U.S. crude inventories and an unexpected climb in gasoline supplies.
But Moody’s Investors Service’s decision to keep Spain’s sovereign rating out of junk status calmed nerves in the euro zone, contributing to a softer dollar. That provided some support for dollar-denominated commodities, such as oil.
Crude for November delivery fell 27 cents, or 0.3%, to $91.82 U.S. a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Prices were trading around $92.64 U.S. shortly before the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude supplies rose by 2.9 million barrels.
Analysts polled by Platts expected a 1.5 million-barrel increase in crude supplies. The American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday had posted a 3.7 million-barrel rise in last week’s inventories.
Upbeat data on the economy tends to boost prospects for oil demand. The U.S. government on Wednesday reported that construction starts on new U.S. homes surged 15% in September, rising at the fastest pace in more than four years.
The EIA also reported that motor gasoline supplies added 1.7 million barrels, while distillate stocks, which include heating oil, fell 2.2 million barrels last week. Analysts were looking for a decline of 400,000 barrels for gasoline inventories and a drawdown of 1.5 million barrels in distillates, according to the Platts poll.
Following the supply data, gasoline and heating-oil futures fell even more.
November heating oil lost three cents, or 0.8%, to $3.17 U.S. a gallon and November gasoline declined by seven cents, or 2.3% to $2.78 U.S. a gallon. Both were down about a penny before the supply report.
Natural gas for November delivery rose less than a cent, or 0.2%, to $3.44 U.S. per million British thermal units, ahead of a weekly EIA update on natural-gas supplies due out Thursday morning.
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