Crude oil prices in 2009
May contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up 73 cents to $49.98 per barrel near the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange after going above $50 per barrel earlier in the session, while Brent crude had added $1.21 to $53 per barrel at last report on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.
The gains came on news from the Labor Department that first time jobless claims in the US fell by 53,000 to 610,000 last week, even though the department also said that the number of individuals receiving unemployment checks was above 6 million Americans for the first time ever.
Additional bad news came in the form of new data showing that US housing starts were down by 10.8 percent in March while newly issued building permits were also down.
The US Energy Information Administration said that natural gas inventories were up by 21 billion cubic feet last week to 1.695 trillion cubic feet, almost 25 percent above the five year average.
The news sent Nymex May natural gas futures 10 cents lower to $3.50 per million British thermal units, while Nymex May gasoline and June heating oil futures each added 2 cents, to $1.46 per gallon and $1.44 per gallon respectively.
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