Crude oil futures extended their slide Wednesday after the government reported an overall decline in crude stocks that matched analyst expectations. Light, sweet crude for January delivery, already on a downward track among growing economic concerns, plunged $1.58 to $92.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to AP. In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said oil stocks fell by 400,000 barrels last week, in line with the 500,000 barrel decrease analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had on average expected. But crude inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, rose by 600,000 barrels. The Cushing terminal is the physical delivery point for Nymex crude. Falling supplies there are seen as a symptom of a tight market. Those concerns ease when Cushing inventories rise. Refinery activity rose by 2.4 percent last week to 89.4 percent of capacity. Analysts had expected activity to rise by 0.6 percentage point to 87.6 percent of capacity. Supplies of gasoline rose last week by 1.4 million barrels. Analysts had expected a 600,000-barrel increase. And inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 100,000 barrels, far less than the 1 million barrel decline analysts had expected. Crude imports rose last week by an average of 534,000 barrels a day to 10.4 barrels a day. Gasoline imports fell last week by 289,000 barrels a day to an average of 835,000 barrels a day. Gasoline demand rose last week by 134,000 barrels, and is up 0.4 percent over the last four weeks compared to the same period last year, the EIA said. Other energy futures also fell Wednesday. December gasoline dropped 5.03 cents to $2.3227 a gallon on the Nymex, and December heating oil slid 2.89 cents to $2.6245 a gallon. December natural gas fell 15.2 cents to $7.405 per 1,000 cubic feet on the Nymex. In London, January Brent crude fell 69 cents to $91.83 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
