WTI ends session lower

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for February delivery dropped 57 cents to $96.05 per barrel at the end of the session after early gains on new home sales data and on continuing uncertainty about conditions in the Middle East after yesterday’s assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan.

Despite the day’s decline, WTI prices are up 3 percent for the week.

Meanwhile, February contracts for Brent crude fell 88 cents to $93.90 on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex January gasoline was nearly 4 cents lower to $2.46 per gallon after rising to a new record of $2.5175 per gallon earlier in the session.

On the other hand, at-the-pump gasoline prices in the United States were up 1.9 cents overnight to $3 on average across the nation, with predictions that they will rise to new records in the spring.