CRUDE OIL SLIPS SLIGHTLY BUT STILL NEAR $50-A-BARREL MARK

U.S. oil gave up early gains Wednesday as the dollar took off following the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes that showed interest rates could climb next month.
A stronger U.S. dollar makes dollar-denominated goods more expensive for traders using other currencies.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were12 cents lower, settling to $48.19 a barrel. The session high was $48.95, its highest since mid-October.
International Brent crude was 46 cents lower to $48.80 a barrel. It reached $49.85 earlier, the highest it’s been since November, CNBC reported.

Oil prices had increased around 1 percent today, hitting new 2016 highs, as the market focused on large draw-downs in U.S. refined fuel inventories and ignored a surprise build in crude stockpiles.
Brent and U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures advanced closer to the $50-a-barrel mark on mixed supply-demand data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Meanwhile, U.S. crude inventories rose 1.3 million barrels in the week to May 13, compared with analysts' expectations for a decrease of 2.8 million barrels and a 1.1 million-barrel drawdown reported on Tuesday by a trade group, the American Petroleum Institute.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for WTI futures also rose, by 461,000 barrels, to record highs.
The market's attention, however, was on a gasoline stockpile drop of 2.5 million barrels after analysts had expected a decline of 150,000 barrels.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 3.2 million barrels, compared with expectations for a 642,000-barrel drop.
Oil prices have increased since the start of this week on expectations of lower U.S. crude stockpiles, a new wildfire threat on Canadian oil supplies and worries about outages in Libya and Nigeria.
Prices are up more than 80 percent from 12-year lows of around $27 for Brent in January and about $26 for WTI in February.
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