Oil traded near $95 a barrel for a second day in New York, failing to extend last week’s 4.2 percent gain, as investors bet China will step up efforts to cool its economy, tempering fuel demand. Futures fell as much as 0.3 percent today after the People’s Bank of China said July 4 the world’s biggest energy user still faces “large” inflationary pressure and the central bank will maintain a “prudent” monetary policy. U.S. markets were closed yesterday for the Independence Day holiday. The sale of U.S. emergency crude reserves as part of a stockpile release has been “very successful,” the International Energy Agency said. Oil for August delivery was at $94.79 a barrel, down 15 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 1:14 p.m. Sydney time. Nymex floor trading was closed yesterday for the Fourth of July holiday. Yesterday’s electronic trades are booked with today’s transactions for settlement purposes. Futures are 31 percent higher the past year. Brent oil for August settlement fell 27 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $111.12 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract was at a premium of $16.40 to U.S. futures. The spread reached a record $22.29 on June 15. New York futures fell 4.6 percent on June 23 after the IEA, an adviser to 28 oil-consuming nations, said its members will release 60 million barrels of crude and oil products, the first such deployment in five years. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed on June 8 to announce a plan on making up for halted Libyan exports. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski in Singapore at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

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