U.S. oil futures settle at a more than 2-week high

U.S. oil futures settled Wednesday at their highest in more than two weeks, finding support after U.S. government data revealed a 10.6 million-barrel drop in domestic crude supplies for the week ended Aug. 25. “Refinery issues will work their way into next week’s numbers, while hurricane activity should have little influence, perhaps bolstering product demand” as consumers likely made efforts to front-run Hurricane Idalia in Florida and fill up gas tanks and emergency generators, said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst, Americas, at Kpler. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery
CLV23,
+0.51%
climbed 47 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $81.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest front-month finish since Aug. 14, FactSet data show.