BLBG: Oil Rises to One-Year High as U.S. Gasoline Supplies Tumble
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose above $76 a barrel to a one-year high in New York after an Energy Department report showed an unexpected decline in U.S. gasoline stockpiles as refineries idled units for maintenance.
Inventories of the motor fuel tumbled 5.23 million barrels last week, the biggest drop since September 2008, the department said. A 1.13 million-barrel increase was forecast by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Refineries operated at 80.9 percent of capacity, the lowest level since April.
Crude oil for November delivery climbed 42 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $75.60 a barrel at 11:21 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $76.23, the highest since Oct. 15, 2008. Oil traded at $75.26 before the release of the report at 11 a.m. in Washington.
Last week’s 4.1 percentage point decline in refinery utilization rates was the biggest since September 2008 when units were shut because of hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Refiners often idle units for repairs and upgrades in September and October as gasoline demand drops and before heating-oil use increases.
Inventories of crude oil rose 334,000 barrels to 337.8 million, the department said. Supplies were forecast to increase by 1 million barrels, according to the median of 14 analyst responses in the Bloomberg News survey.
Jobless Benefits
Prices also rose after government reports showed that the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week and that the cost of living in the U.S. rose at a slower pace in September. The releases add to evidence that the economy of the world’s biggest energy- consuming country is recovering.
Applications for jobless assistance fell by 10,000 to 514,000 in the week ended Oct. 10, lower than forecast, from a revised 524,000 the week before, Labor Department data showed today in Washington. The total number of people collecting unemployment insurance also decreased.
The 0.2 percent gain in the consumer-price index followed a 0.4 percent increase in August, as forecast, figures from the Labor Department showed today.
Manufacturing in the New York region expanded in October at the fastest pace in five years, reinforcing signs that factories are helping pull the economy out of the recession. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general economic index soared to 34.6 from 18.9 in September, the bank said today. Readings above zero for the Empire State index signal manufacturing is growing.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net.
