Oil dives below $97/barrel on supply report; gold sheds 0.6%

NEW YORK (Oct 23)  Oil futures stretched their decline to a second straight session, as a U.S. government report confirmed a bigger-than-expected climb in crude supplies for the week ended Oct. 18.

December crude finished at $96.86, down 1.5 percent. Futures prices lost 1.4 percent yesterday. Based on the most-active futures contracts, prices marked their lowest close since June 28.

Crude inventories climbed 5.25 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said. Analysts polled by Bloomberg estimated a gain of 3 million.

The EIA's supply data marked a fifth-consecutive weekly rise. Stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, increased for a second week and domestic production jumped to the most in 24 years.

In the metals market, gold futures closed lower, pulling back after closing a day earlier at their highest in almost five weeks.

December gold fell 0.6 percent to finish at $1,334 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold futures yesterday soared to $1,342.60, the highest close for a most-active contract in nearly five weeks, after a lackluster September jobs report raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will stick to its monetary-easing policy for the foreseeable future.

Elsewhere in metals, December silver gave up 0.8 percent to $22.62 an ounce.