MW: Oil pulls back below $77 as U.S. supplies build
By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures fell for a third day, dipping under $77 a barrel, as traders continued to digest U.S. supplies data illustrating a surprising increase in crude stockpiles.
Crude traded little changed Thursday after the latest data on U.S. jobless claims, with the count of those applying for benefits down 11,000 to 457,000 last week.
The crude contract for September delivery was off 16 cents at $76.83 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract lost 51 cents a barrel in Wednesday's session, falling after inventory statistics from the Energy Department showed a buildup of 7.3 million barrels last week. Analysts had anticipated a drop.
But oil bounced back as the market focused on rising demand for gasoline and other oil products also displayed in the government's data.
