Crude oil recovers after recent sell-off

WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – Crude oil futures staged a notable rally on Thursday, regaining ground after the sell-off of recent sessions.

After falling 8.0 percent in the previous four sessions, the price of crude oil for October delivery rose $1.01 to 1.4 percent at $72.94 a barrel.

Crude oil prices may have benefited from bargain hunting after recent weakness, but also from optimism that rate cuts in the US and Europe could lead to increased demand.

The buying interest may have come in response to yesterday’s report, which showed U.S. crude oil inventories fell sharply in the week ending Aug. 16.

The Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories fell by 4.6 million barrels last week, after rising by 1.4 million barrels the week before. Economists had expected crude inventories to fall by 2.8 million barrels.

The report showed that stockpiles of motor gasoline also fell by 1.6 million barrels last week, while stockpiles of distillate fuels, which include heating oil and diesel, also fell by 3.3 million barrels.

Despite this, crude oil prices are still well below recent highs amid concerns about the outlook for Chinese demand.

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