By Nick Godt
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude oil futures slumped on Wednesday after the Energy Department reported a drop of 3.9 million barrels in U.S. crude inventories. Analysts polled by Platts expected a 2-million-barrel increase in commercial crude-oil supplies for the week ended Jan. 22. Crude oil for March delivery recently fell 14 cents, or 0.2%, to $74.58 a barrel, after briefly slumping as low as $73.86 in electronic trade. The EIA also reported distillate supplies rose by 400,000 barrels and gasoline inventories were up by 2 million barrels in the latest week.
