Crude oil slips slightly

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NEW YORK, July 5 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices gave up 21 cents to reach $87.01 per barrel Thursday after two central banks relaxed their lending rates.

The European Central Bank cut its lending rate from 1 percent to an historic low of 0.75 percent. In Beijing, the People's Bank of China cut its one-year bank-to-bank rate from 6.3 percent to 6 percent.

Prices found support from a 4.3 million barrel drop in U.S. crude oil inventories. But traders are focused on signals on the demand side of the equation and seeing signs of a sputtering recovery in the United States and declining economies in much of Europe.

The rate drops by central banks could be considered positive, but also as an admittance that the economies need help to keep growing.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, home heating oil prices lost 1.42 cents to $2.7542 per gallon.

Reformulated blendstock gasoline hit $2.7451 per gallon, off 1.97 cents.

Natural gas for July delivery reached $2.951 per million British thermal units, up 0.6 cents.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline rose to $3.338 per gallon Thursday from Wednesday's $3.336, AAA said.