Oil settles down more than $5 as US data shows weak demand

Oil prices lost more than 5% on Wednesday as fuel demand destruction and a bleaker macroeconomic picture took center stage. Brent is now trading at $85 a barrel and WTI at $84 a barrel. These prices have reversed course after hitting their highs of the year last week. One potential cause might be OPEC's recommendation that the cartel maintain its current oil output policy, with some analysts speculating that OPEC will need to cut production more than it already has. Finished motor gasoline supplied, a proxy for demand, fell last week to about 8 million bpd, its lowest since the start of this year. Some of that demand destruction could be due to torrential rains which brought flooding to New York last Friday and post-tropical storm Ophelia.