Investing.com - Crude oil prices eased marginally in Asia on Thursday as the end of the Federal Reserve's bond buying program brought strength to the dollar.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for delivery in December traded at $81.99, down 0.06%. A stronger dollar tends to weaken crude prices.
Brent crude rose $1.09, or 1.3%, in price to settle at $87.12 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. It was the global oil benchmark's highest settlement since Oct. 13.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday ended its monthly bond purchase program and dropped a characterization of U.S. labor market slack as "significant" in a show of confidence in the economy's prospects.
The quantitative easing program aims to spur recovery by suppressing long-term borrowing costs with the hope companies raise capital to invest and hire, weakening the dollar as a side effect, thus making gold an attractive hedge.
An end to quantitative easing has largely been priced into trading, which softened gold prices ahead of the announcement even though weeks of hit-or-miss data have many investors uncertai
Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels in the week ending Oct. 24, below expectations for a gain of 3.4 million barrels, which sparked a rally in oil markets by easing concerns the world is facing a hefty supply glut.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 379.7 million barrels as of last week.
The report also showed that total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.2 million barrels, compared to forecasts for a decline of 1.0 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell by 5.3 million barrels.