Gas Inventories Fall for 6th Straight Week

U.S. gasoline inventories fell for a sixth consecutive week, as demand soared to the second-highest level in two decades, a report from the American Petroleum Institute showed.

Supplies fell twice the amount expected by analysts, as demand from distributors reached 10 million barrels a day, shy of the 22-year high reached in late June. The 1.5% decline left inventories little changed from a year ago in the final weeks of the peak-demand summer vacation season.

Gasoline futures rose in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the report was released. The September contract recently was up 1.09 cents at 79.5 cents a gallon.