Mild Weather Pinches Oil

Oil prices were slipping below $59 Wednesday on unseasonably warm weather in the Northeast and expectations of rising fuel supplies.

Light, sweet crude was last tumbling $2.64 to $58.41 a barrel, and gasoline was slipping 5 cents to $1.56 a gallon. Natural gas was last down 13 cents at $6.17 per million British thermal units, and heating oil was off 6 cents at $1.58 a gallon.

Mild weather has blanketed the Northeast, the country's largest user of heating oil, for the past few weeks and dampened prices and demand. Warmer-than-average temperatures are expected to remain in the region through the middle of the month, according to the National Weather Service's Tuesday outlook. ...