Oil and gasoline futures fell Wednesday after U.S. government data showed growing evidence of falling demand and traders shrugged off a decline in supplies.
Light sweet crude for November delivery fell 60 cents to $63.30 per barrel in afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where futures fell $1.57 on Tuesday. Unleaded gasoline futures fell more than 11 cents to $1.905 per gallon, putting them 19 percent below the Sept. 28 peak of $2.34 a gallon.
The Energy Department said commercial inventories of crude oil fell by 300,000 barrels last week to 305.4 million barrels, putting supplies 12 percent above year-ago levels. Gasoline inventories shrank by 4.3 million barrels to 195.5 million barrels, or 4.5 percent below last year’s level.
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