Crude Unable to Hold $70

Updated from 10:27 a.m. EDT

The August contract for West Texas Intermediate crude pierced the $70 a barrel level Thursday and stayed there for most of the trading session before ducking back under it just before the close.

Oil rose 74 cents to $69.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Reformulated gasoline climbed 2 cents to $2.27 a gallon, and heating oil gained 2 cents at $2.04 a gallon. Natural gas lost 25 cents to close at $6.84 per million British thermal units.

The last time oil was above $70 was September. The general bullishness was a side effect of Wednesday's inventory numbers. According to analysts at Barclays Research, petroleum products like gasoline and distillates are at their tightest levels since November 2004. ...