Oil Slips From Record High

Energy futures crept lower Wednesday, a day after the near-term West Texas Intermediate crude contract reached a new all-time-high of $100.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

WTI for April delivery was down 46 cents at $100.42 a barrel. Reformulated gasoline was 5 cents lower at $2.50 a gallon. Heating oil slipped 2 cents to $2.80 a gallon, and natural gas shed 27 cents to $8.93 per million British thermal units.

At one point early in the day, oil futures reached $102.08 before falling back.

Contributing to the weakness was a new weekly crude inventory report released by the Energy Information Administration that was slightly bearish. Crude stores grew by 3.2 million barrels, topping analyst forecasts of a 2.7 million-barrel increase. Gasoline inventories jumped 2.4 million barrels, compared with analyst estimates of a 375,000-barrel build.

Distillate inventories, the report said, fell by 2.6 million barrels, compared with expectations of a 2.2 million-barrel draw.

The prior session's rise in crude prices was catalyzed by a report by chemical transportation and storage firm Petrologistics saying that OPEC has cut total production in February. The report came on the heels of comments made last week by OPEC president Chakib Khelil, who said the oil cartel will definitely not increase production when it meets again in March.

In a research note, Dennis Gartman, publisher of the Gartman Letter, said high demand for oil in emerging markets like China is making up for the economic downturn in the U.S. and Europe. Soaring sales of SUVs in China, up 50% over last year, are evidence of this demand, Gartman says. This has kept upward pressure on global crude prices.

Meanwhile, energy stocks were broadly higher. Chevron (CVX Quote - Cramer on CVX - Stock Picks) rose 0.7% to $88.74. Exxon Mobil(XOM Quote - Cramer on XOM - Stock Picks) was fractionally higher at $90, and Marathon (MRO Quote - Cramer on MRO - Stock Picks) was up 2.6% to $54.83.