Crude Oil Finishes Slightly Lower After Dipping Below $70

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Crude oil posted its seventh straight daily decline on Thursday, but bounced back from an early drop to pare most of its losses.

Light sweet crude for January settled at $70.54 per barrel, down 13 cents on the session. Earlier, oil had hit as low as $69.73.

Lingering concerns over the credit sitations in Spain and Dubai continued to weigh on energy demand hopes.

Oil rebounded, however, after Energy Information Administration data showed a larger-than-expected decline in natural gas inventories. Janauary natural gas surged 40 cents on the NYMEX.

The EIA on Wednesday reported that gasoline inventories increased by 2.2 million barrels last week, compared to a rise of 1.8 million barrels forecast by Crude oil inventories decreased by 3.8 million barrels from the previous week.

In economic news, a Labor Department report showed that initial jobless claims rose to 474,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 457,000. The modest increase came as a surprise to economists, who had been expecting jobless claims to edge down to 455,000.

Meanwhile, a Commerce Department report showed that the trade deficit narrowed to $32.9 billion in October from a revised $35.7 billion in September. Economists had been expecting the deficit to widen to $36.8 billion from the $36.5 billion originally reported for the previous month.

The dollar remained near a five-week high against the euro and a six-week high versus the pound. Commodities often move opposite the dollar because of the hedge appeal.

(Market News Provided by RTTNews)