US Growing Supplies Sent Oil Down

Oil settled down on Thursday after the U.S. government released data that showed a growing domestic supply of gasoline and other fuels.

July light sweet crude futures fell 97 cents to settle at $53.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, almost $2 below the intraday high of $55.40.

Just a few weeks ago prices had fallen below $47 a barrel on signs of slower economic growth and rising petroleum inventories worldwide. Now traders seem consumed once again by fears of potential supply tightness later in the year.

The agency said inventories of crude oil rose last week by 1.4 million barrels to 333.8 million barrels, or 11 percent above last year, while gasoline inventories grew by 1.3 million barrels to 216.7 million barrels, up 6 percent from a year ago