By Kate Gibson
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Oil prices were near neutral on Friday after two days of gains ahead of U.S. data expected to illustrate slowing economic growth. "Recent weakness in U.S. data has raised concerns over the energy demand outlook as total petroleum inventories reached their highest level since weekly records began in 1990," wrote analysts at Action Economics. Benchmark crude for October delivery was lately up 2 cents at $73.38 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
