Crude oil extended yesterday's rebound in early trading on Thursday but came under pressure over the course of the session.
After reaching a high of $74 a barrel, crude for February delivery plunged as low as $71.06 a barrel before recovering to end the day down $0.51 or 0.7 percent at $72.19 a barrel.
The downturn by the price of crude oil came following the release of the Energy Information Administration's report on oil inventories in the week ended December 29th.
While the report showed a bigger than expected decrease in crude oil inventories, gasoline and distillate fuel inventories moved sharply higher.
The report said crude oil inventories slumped by 5.5 million barrels after tumbling by 7.1 million barrels in the previous week. Economists had expected inventories to fall by 3.7 million barrels.
Meanwhile, the EIA said gasoline and distillate fuel inventories spiked by 10.9 million barrels and 10.1 million barrels, respectively.
