Crude Draw No Help for Oil

Updated from 12:52 p.m. EST

Energy prices finished mostly lower Wednesday at the New York Mercantile Exchange, unaffected by weekly crude oil inventory numbers that were slightly more bullish than analysts had anticipated.

The near-term contract for light, sweet crude oil slid $1.06 to $58 a barrel. Heating oil fell 5 cents to $1.64 a gallon. Natural gas eased 13 cents to $7.24 per million British thermal units, while gasoline edged up a cent to $1.62 a gallon.

Energy commodity prices had weakened in overnight trading after showing strong gains on Tuesday. Analysts said that traders were most likely taking profits ahead of the inventory report, which was released by the Energy Information Agency at 10:30 a.m. EST. ...