Crude Oil Surrenders Early Gains

Crude oil futures were trading slightly to the downside in New York Wednesday afternoon, giving back morning gains that pushed the near-month contract above $108 a barrel.

Recently, West Texas crude for November delivery was losing $1.01 to $105.60 a barrel, and Brent crude was weaker by 46 cents at $102.62.

As for other contracts, reformulated gasoline was off 3 cents at $2.57 a gallon, and natural gas was sliding 25 cents to $7.68 per million British thermal units. Heating oil escaped the selling and rose fractionally to $3 a gallon.

Earlier, the Energy Department said crude oil inventories declined by 1.5 million barrels last week, a smaller draw than had been expected. Gasoline and distillate inventories had substantially larger drops than analysts had predicted.

The U.S. Oil (USO Quote - Cramer on USO - Stock Picks) ETF, which tracks the price of Nymex crude, was losing 0.9% to $85.34. Among stocks, Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote - Cramer on XOM - Stock Picks), Chevron (CVX Quote - Cramer on CVX - Stock Picks) and ConocoPhillips (COP Quote - Cramer on COP - Stock Picks) were rising. BP (BP Quote - Cramer on BP - Stock Picks) was slightly weaker.

Oil-services companies Schlumberger (SLB Quote - Cramer on SLB - Stock Picks) and Halliburton (HAL Quote - Cramer on HAL - Stock Picks) ticked down.

Elsewhere in commodities, metals were little changed. Gold was up 20 cents at $891.40 an ounce, and silver was slipping 2 cents to $13.42 an ounce. The dollar was stronger across the board against other major currencies, most notably the yen and the Swiss franc.