By Polya Lesova & Moming Zhou, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures swung between gains and losses Wednesday, as a weaker dollar boosted dollar-denominated commodities prices but petroleum data showing rising crude inventories put downward pressures on prices. Crude inventories rose 1 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 20 as imports increased, the Energy Information Administration reported. Also moving oil prices were a slew of economic data including initial jobless claims and new-home sales. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for January delivery gained 0.1% to $76.09 a barrel. "Today's EIA numbers were basically as expected," said Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors. "If the support level of $75.50 is taken out, crude oil can see a swift movement lower." In its weekly update, the EIA also reported gasoline inventories rose 1 million barrels and distillate stockpiles, which include heating oil and diesel, fell 500,000 barrels. Analysts polled by Platts had expected an increase of 1.4 million barrels in crude inventories, an increase of 500,000 barrels in gasoline inventories. They saw no change in distillate stockpiles. Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, reported late Tuesday that crude inventories rose 3.4 million. The government and the API use different criteria for measuring petroleum stockpiles. Gasoline demand rose slightly from a week ago to 9.09 million barrels a day, and total petroleum demand rose 1.7% to 18.82 million barrels a day, the EIA data showed. But demand is still lower than a year ago. "Consumption seemed mildly bullish but that is likely a pre-Thanksgiving effect as retailers stock up for the holiday travel," said James Williams, an economist at energy research firm WTRG Economics. Crude imports rose 4.3% to 8.95 million barrels a day. And inventories at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for Nymex crude futures, rose for a fourth week to 29.5 million barrels. "We view the current oil-price development as a sign of relative weakness and see the risk of price erosion toward $75 a barrel," said analysts at Commerzbank AG. The EIA is also expected to report an addition of 3 billion to 7 billion cubic feet to natural gas in storage for the week ended Nov. 20. The gas inventories report will be released a day early due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Also for this reason, energy traders had much U.S. macroeconomic data to sort through. The Commerce Department reported consumer spending rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% in October, but orders for U.S.-made durable goods fell 0.6%. The Labor Department said the number of people filing first-time claims for state unemployment benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 466,000 in the week ended Nov. 21. The consensus among economists surveyed by MarketWatch had been for 495,000 initial claims. U.S. new-home sales rose 6.2% in October on strong results in the South, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday. An index of consumer sentiment in November rose to 67.4 from an earlier reading of 66, said the University of Michigan and Reuters In currencies trading, the dollar dropped sharply. The dollar index (DXY 74.65, -0.42, -0.56%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.8% to 74.459. In other energy trading, December gasoline lost 0.4% to $1.9315 a gallon, December heating oil climbed 0.1% to $1.9517 a gallon, and January natural gas rose 3.8% to $4.948 per million British thermal units. The United States Oil Fund (USO 38.58, -0.01, -0.03%) slid 0.2%, and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG 9.33, +0.32, +3.55%) rose 3%.

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