WTI drops 87 cents after breaching $90 level

Crude oil prices were lower on Friday as West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery dropped 87 cents at the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange to $88.60 per barrel, down from a new high of $90.07 per barrel which it reached two different times in the course of electronic trade overnight.

While most analysts do not believe that the high prices are not supported by fundamentals of supply and demand, they also believe that the day’s declines are not the sign of a new trend but were just a matter of taking advantage of a chance to realize profits and that a weakening dollar and a decline in inventories at key storage facilities in Cushing, Oklahoma will push prices higher again.

Nymex November gasoline futures were 2 cents lower to $2.17 per gallon, but at-the-pump prices in the United States have gone up 5.3 cents in the past few days to a national average of $2.81 per gallon.

Meanwhile, December heating oil on Nymex also dropped 2 cents, to $2.35 per gallon, while December natural gas fell 36 cents to $7.72 per million British thermal units.