Oil futures finished with a slight loss on Wednesday, with U.S. prices failing to hold above the $70 mark they closed at a day earlier. Prices declined despite the Energy Information Administration reporting a 5.2 million decline in last week’s crude inventories, and even as the prospects of Iranian supplies returning to market “evaporated” after U.S. officials said some sanctions against the country were unlikely to be lifted, said Lukman Otunuga, senior research analyst at FXTM. Gasoline futures led losses among the major Nymex futures contracts as the EIA reported a 7 million-barrel weekly rise in supplies of the fuel. West Texas Intermediate oil for July delivery fell 9 cents, or 0.1%, to settle at $69.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after settling at $70.05 on Tuesday, the highest front-month contract finish since October 2018. July gasoline settled Wednesday at $2.20 a gallon, down 2 cents, or 0.7%.
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