Oil prices inched down Thursday as traders were looking for excuses to lock in gains after recent rallies.
Encouraged by the shrinking supplies and production of the United States, both the U.S. oil and Brent crude hit the round-number mark of 50 U.S. dollars a barrel in the early trading session Thursday, but then slid and settled at the red territory on profit-taking.
U.S. crude supplies of last week lost 4.2 million barrels to 537.1 million barrels, and crude production of the country decreased 24,000 to 8.767 million barrels a day last week, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA)'s weekly report released Wednesday.
Oil prices have risen nearly 90 percent from multi-year lows seen early 2016. The West Texas Intermediate for July delivery fell 8 cents to settle at 49.48 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for July delivery decreased 15 cents to close at 49.59 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
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