Crude oil bounced back on Friday and finished above the $95 a barrel mark. Light sweet crude for December settlement closed at $95.10, up $1.67 on the day. Prices moved up at the open and reached as high as $95.73 during the session. Crude gained $2.32 in the week. This was the final day for the December contract, which saw oil set a record high of $98.64. January takes over as the front-month contract on Monday. Oil recouped its losses from Thursday, when it fell after the weekly inventory report revealed an unexpected rise in stockpiles. The Department of Energy's weekly report showed that crude oil inventories in the week ended November 9 increased by 2.8 million barrels after falling in the three previous weeks. The increase came as a surprise to economists who had expected crude oil inventories to fall by about 700,000 barrels. Light sweet crude for December delivery finished down 66 cents on the day. Oil reached as low as $92.00 in mid-day trading, but pared most of its losses. Oil had climbed on Wednesday when it added $2.92 on the session after dropping in four of the previous five sessions. Before Wednesday's rally, oil had been falling this sharply week. Crude had dropped $3.45 on Tuesday and approached the $90 a barrel mark and touched a November-low of $90.13 earlier in the day amid speculation of reduced demand. Monday, oil dropped $1.70 on the session amid speculation that OPEC may discuss increasing production at its next meeting. On the economic front Friday morning, the Federal Reserve released its report on industrial production and capacity utilization in the month of October, showing that industrial production unexpectedly fell while capacity utilization fell more than expected. The report showed that industrial production fell 0.5 percent in October following an upwardly revised 0.2 percent increase in September. The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected production to edge up 0.1 percent. The Federal Reserve added that the capacity utilization rate fell to 81.7 percent in October from an upwardly revised 82.2 percent in the previous month. Economists had been expecting a more modest decline to an 82.0 percent rate.
November 16, 2007 3:44 PM