LONDON (SHARECAST) - Crude oil futures fell over 2% on Wednesday after an unexpected rise in US gasoline inventories while a mixed bag of economic data helped drive the dollar higher.
Crude oil for December delivery finished down $2.09 at $77.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Energy Information Administration said US crude oil inventories rose by 800,000 barrels, less than expected, while gasoline supplies rose unexpectedly by 1.6m barrels. Analysts had pencilled in a 900,000 barrel increase in crude stocks and for gasoline stockpiles to decline by 1m barrels.
The stronger dollar also hurt demand for the black stuff after economic data triggered fresh concern about the timing of the economic recovery.
New home sales fell 3.6% to 402,000 in September, a bigger drop than economists had been expecting while a separate report showed durable goods orders rose 1%.
The rebound in the dollar also clipped demand for gold on Wednesday. Gold for December delivery fell $4.90 an ounce to $1,030.5 an ounce in New York.
Gold prices had initially risen following the disappointing US home sales report but as the dollar made headway gold prices retreated.
Silver for December delivery was down 30 cents to $16.24 an ounce while December copper dropped 7 cents to $2.93 a pound.
