Oil futures add to losses after inventories data (by Claudia Assis)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures added to losses Thursday after a weekly government supply report showed a surprise increase in crude inventories. Crude for February delivery (cl2g) retreated 80 cents, or 0.8%, to $102.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Before the report, oil traded at $102.65 a barrel. The Energy Information Administration said oil supplies rose 2.2 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 30. That compares to expectations of a decline of 450,000 barrels by analysts polled by Platts, and a decline of 4.4 million barrels shown by a trade group on Wednesday. The EIA also said gasoline inventories rose 2.5 million, and supplies of distillates went up 3.2 million barrels. The Platts analysts had expected increases of 1.5 million barrels and 500,000 barrels, respectively.