Crude oil prices briefly dropped below $40 barrel before settling higher as the dollar pared gains.
Light crude for December delivery fell as low as $39.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest intraday level since August, before settling up eight cents, or 0.2%, at $40.75 a barrel.
Brent, the global benchmark, rose 57 cents, or 1.3%, to settle at $44.14 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
Prices slid earlier in the session after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. crude supplies last week increased for an eighth consecutive week, raising concerns that the global glut of crude that sent prices plunging in the past year is going to persist well into 2016.
Producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia are pumping at full tilt, and U.S. output hasn’t declined as much as some investors had expected earlier this year.
