Crude futures headed higher on Thursday, with prices on track to tally their first gain in five sessions, supported in part by an unexpected decline in last week’s U.S. crude inventories, which followed sizeable back-to-back weekly gains.
Business inventories rose 0.3% for the second straight month and for the fifth straight month overall in August, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
U.S. industrial production fell 0.3% in September, held down by the strike at Boeing Co and by the two recent hurricanes, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday.