Crude Oil Prices Turn Lower

Updated from 2:17 a.m EDT.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Oil prices have turned lower Friday, falling 30 cents to $77.28 a barrel, after earlier breaking above $78 in trading in Asia.

Crude oil for November delivery rose as high as $78.17 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, before paring back the gains. The contract settled at $77.58 on Thursday, a gain of $2.40.

Friday's decline is contrary to the rally in oil this week.

Oil prices jumped Thursday on an Energy Department report that said oil stockpiles grew by a slender 400,000 barrels last week, bringing the total to 337.8 million barrels. Analysts surveyed by Platts were expecting a much larger 2.2 million barrel gain.

U.S. gasoline supplies fell by 5.2 million barrels on refinery cuts, while forecasts had expected stockpiles to grow by 1.6 million barrels.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York .

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