By Laura Mandaro and Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil prices on Thursday trimmed gains but held above $90 a barrel, in record territory, as the commodity tracked the equities market and a slew of U.S. data, while supply data indicated a likely pickup in demand.
Crude oil for February delivery (CLG11 90.62, +0.14, +0.16%) traded up 10 cents at $90.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after a rush of mid-morning economic data. In electronic trade, it had climbed as high as $90.81 a barrel. The contract’s Wednesday close marked its highest since October 2008.
Oil fell back a bit after the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index showed a rise in December that met expectations, while the pace of new home sales last month fell short of forecasts.
Shadowing U.S. stock futures, the commodity showed little reaction to early economic data that showed U.S. claims for initial jobless benefits falling by 3,000 to 420,000 last week. Other economic reports showed personal income and spending up in November. Read about oil’s recent spike.
Stocks made a weak start after the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA 11,569, +9.69, +0.08%) and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index (SPX 1,257, -1.91, -0.15%) both closed at new two-year highs on Wednesday. The Dow recently traded up 7 points, while the S&P 500 was off 2 points.
Oil was also drawing support from declining U.S. supplies, signaling demand might be on the rise.
The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration on Wednesday said supplies fell by 5.3 million barrels last week from the prior week. The decline comes after the EIA said last week that supplies fell 9.9 million barrels, the largest drop in eight years.
“U.S. oil-demand indications for December remain strong, with this month heading for the first showing above 20 million barrels a day in any month since February 2008,” wrote Barclays Capital analyst Paul Horsnell in a research note.
In other electronic Nymex trading Thursday, gasoline futures for January delivery (RBF11 2.43, +0.01, +0.50%) fell 0.01 cent to $2.417 a gallon, while January heating oil (HOF11 2.53, +0.00, +0.00%) held steady at 1 cent to $2.529 a gallon.
Natural-gas futures for January delivery (NGF11 4.11, -0.04, -0.99%) declined 6 cents to $4.09 per million British thermal units.
Analysts polled by Platts expect the Energy Information Administration to report a withdrawal in weekly natural-gas supplies between 178 and 182 billion cubic feet for the week ended Dec. 17.
