Commodity Online
SINGAPORE :Oil eased in afternoon Asian trade Thursday as rising crude inventories and poor corporate results suggested the worst US recession in decades could be deepening.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 9 cents to $40.23 a barrel by midday in Singapore in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract overnight dropped 46 cents to settle at $40.32.

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In London, the March Brent contract rose 26 cents to $44.41 on the ICE Futures exchange.

In other Nymex trading, Gasoline futures rose 0.28 cent to $1.22 a gallon. Heating Oil was steady at $1.33 a gallon while Natural Gas for March delivery rose 4.8 cents to $4.65 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Fourth quarter US corporate earnings have mostly been dismal, and more companies reported on Wednesday that plunging consumer demand is hurting their profits.

Oil inventories jumped 7.2 million barrels from the previous week to 346.1 million, according to an Energy Information Administration report on Wednesday.

Crude supplies are running at a surplus of 50.3 million barrels from the same period last year.

OPEC has promised to reduce output by 4.2 million barrels since September, and the group's leaders have said the cartel could announce more production cuts at its next meeting in March.

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