Oil futures fall amid inventory claims

Oil futures eased off today (October 24th) as the US government's weekly fuel inventory report showed crude supplies to have grown last week.

Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires are reported to have predicted a rise in crude inventory supplies totaling around 300,000 barrels for the week ending 19th October, allowing prices of futures to ease off.

Official reports from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) are eagerly awaited, as a large discrepancy opened up between analyst predictions, but for now the average supply boost estimated is acting on crude prices.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell 96 cents to $85.06 in light of the estimates, providing respite for markets which had seen uncertainty and fuel price hike-based inflation fears circulate.

David Moore, commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, told the Associatied Press: "At the moment, the opinion in the oil market is divided as to just how tight the oil market is and that's contributing to the volatility that we're seeing in the oil price."

Whether to buy gold or not is a question waiting on the direction of crude prices before it finds its answer – with a rebound in the price of futures back up above $90 per barrel likely to bring the precious metal back into its safe-haven element.