traders also weigh a hot us inflation reading as iea warns of a global economic recession oil futures headed higher thursday with prices looking to recoup some of the losses suffered over the past three trading sessions finding support from expectations of tight winter heatingfuel supplies in the wake of a nearly five millionbarrel weekly drop in us distillate inventories traders also digested the latest strongerthanexpected us inflation reading the ieas warning that opec supply cuts could tip global economy into recession and a biggerthanexpected weekly rise in us crude supplies crude prices turned higher after losing ground in early dealings us government data revealed thursday a 49 millionbarrel drop in domestic supplies of distillates which include heating oil for the week ended oct 7 when you step back and you look at this report from the birds eye view the market is starting to get very concerned about distillate supplies  especially as we get closer to winter phil flynn senior market analyst at the price futures group told marketwatch the recent market weakness from fears of federal reserve interestrate increases and the strong dollar are now flipping over to the fact that supplies are dangerously low as we head into winter he said us data early thursday showed the yearoveryear rise in the consumer price index slowed to 82 last month from 83 in august while the annualized increase in core cpi which strips out volatile food and energy prices rose to 66 from 63 both numbers came in higher than economists polled by the wall street journal had expected the data briefly triggered a selloff across assets but oil prices shifted higher along with benchmark us stock indexes meanwhile the decision last week by the organization of the petroleum exporting countries and its allies  a group known as opec  to cut output by 2 million barrels a day threatens to deepen a global energy crisis by sending oil prices higher at a time of already elevated inflation and weak economic growth the international energy agency said in a monthly report on thursday the energy information administration reported that us crude inventories rose by 99 million barrels for the week ended oct 7 on average analysts forecasted a climb of 22 million barrels according to a poll conducted by sp global commodity insights after spending most of 2022 at record low levels us stockpiles of crude have risen on the combination of weaker seasonal demand and strategic petroleum reserve releases peter mcnally global sector lead for industrials materials and energy at third bridge told marketwatch the crude supply increase came on the heels of a weekly crude stock decline of 77 million barrels in the spr eia data show crude stocks at the cushing okla nymex delivery hub edged down by 400000 barrels for the week though the oil market is increasingly concerned about the spr said flynn many people feel that the spr is being drawn down strictly for political purposes and is going to end up leaving us with an even tighter supply scenario as we get deep into winter in addition to the big drawdown in distillate inventories the report from the eia which reported its data a day later than usual due to mondays federal holiday showed a weekly inventory climb of 2 million barrels for gasoline the sp global commodity insights survey had called for decreases of 21 million barrels for gasoline and 23 million barrels for distillates while weektoweek data is very volatile there was a notable drop in us gasoline demand to levels below consumption in 2020 as the economy was just starting to recover from lockdowns mcnally said adding that hurricane ian potentially impacted the data separately the eia also reported thursday that domestic naturalgas supplies climbed by 125 billion cubic feet for the week ended oct 7 that compared with the average analyst forecast for an increase of 123 billion cubic feet based on a survey conducted by sp global commodity insights total working as stocks in storage remain below the yearago and fiveyear average levels on wednesday the eia released its monthly shortterm energy outlook lowering its forecasts for 2022 and 2023 wti and brent oil prices the government agency also warned in its winter fuels outlook that many households in the us are likely to see sharply higher costs to heat their homes this winter given expectations for higher naturalgas and heatingoil prices