Oil prices fell back after touching $20 a barrel.

However, analysts said they still expect levels to remain well above $19, at least for the next few weeks. “I think after yesterday, everyone agreed the market was going to go to $20, so today it became a self-fulfilling prophecy,” said Andrew Lebow, an analyst at the Shearson Lehman Bros. securities firm. “It got there. Everyone said, ‘What now?’ And then it didn’t have the strength to break through.” On the New York Mercantile Exchange, contracts for July delivery of West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark U.S. crude, closed at $19.81 per 42-gallon barrel, down five cents from Wednesday, when they had risen for the fourth successive day to close at $19.86.