Heating-oil Prices Drop, Dragging Crude Futures Lower

Oil futures turned lower on Wednesday, reversing course from an earlier rally, as a big weekly climb in U.S. distillate supplies dragged prices for heating oil down by 1.8%. The Energy Information Administration reported a 3.6 million-barrel drop in crude stockpiles for the week ended Dec. 4, but it also showed that distillate inventories, which include heating oil, jumped by 5 million barrels. January heating oil fell 2.3 cents, or 1.8%, to $1.237 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. January crude traded at $37.35 a barrel, down 16 cents, or 0.4%, following an earlier climb to as high as $38.99.