The Labor Department said the number of first-time unemployment claims rose unexpectedly for the second straight week. Less people heading off to work means the country will be consuming less gasoline. Benchmark crude for October delivery fell 20 cents to $73.63 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The September contract, which ends Thursday, added 4 cents to $72.46. Oil traders have been looking for signs of economic recovery, expecting that global energy consumption would follow. Crude prices spiked Wednesday when government data showed a heavy drawdown in U.S. oil supplies, in part because refiners were importing less. But the jobless numbers showed that energy consumption may remain subdued for some time. The Energy Information Administration is expected to release more data Thursday on natural gas stockpiles. U.S. storage facilities have been bloated for months with large amounts of unused natural gas because major industrial customers have cut back severely on energy use. At the pump, retail gasoline prices fell less than a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.624 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 16.6 cents more expensive than last month, but it's $1.093 cheaper than the same time last year. In other Nymex trading, gasoline for September delivery ticked higher by less than a penny to $2.0349 a gallon, and heating oil for September delivery gave up almost a penny to $1.91 a gallon. Natural gas for September delivery added 1.8 cents to fetch $3.137 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, Brent prices fell 79 cents to $73.80 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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