For a second straight day, oil prices in the U.S. slipped along with optimism that earlier had resulted in five consecutive days of higher prices. Thursday, prices for West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 44 cents and settled at $23.56 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It represented a 2 % drop.
Earlier on Thursday, WTI had been up more than 11% and hit a high of $26.74 a barrel. Still for the week, oil in the U.S. is up 19%
Brent crude, the international benchmark dropped 52 cents and finished the day at $29.40.
“Nascent signs of rebounding gasoline demand in the U.S. and a rapid curtailment of oil production that has seen U.S. producers cut over 1 million barrels per day of output in a matter of weeks has enabled oil prices to recover,” Again Capital’s John Kilduff told CNBC. “Volatility will remain the watchword, but there is an increasing sense that the worst is behind the industry, at this point.”
Natural gas prices dropped 5 cents and finished Thursday at $1.89 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Devon Energy added 52 cents and settled at $12.01 a share for a 5% gain. SandRidge Energy remained flat without any change in the $1.67 for one of its shares.
Chesapeake Energy was down 25 cents at $14.60 which was a 2% decline. ConocoPhillips jumped $1.93 or 5% before ending the day at $42.42 a share.
Marathon Oil slipped 9 cents for a 2% drop and ended at $5.51 a share. ONEOK’s value saw a $1.10 or 4% gain to reach $29.75 while Phillips 66 shares gained 2% or $1.40 and settled at $73.71 a share.
American Electric Power added 48 cents a share and finished the day at $78.59 for a slightly less than 1% gain.