U.S. crude stocks fall by 400,000 barrels - but demand 'officially' falling even faster

If you look at the above statement, it makes no sense. For stocks to fall, demand has to be eating into supply. Yet prices reflect the opposite. The markets are being manipulated, and it's a bad ploy. It won't save the automakers, and it won't rescue economies from recession. What we need is for Alternatives to get off the ground, and that requires naturally high and stable energy prices. Please don't tell me that $45 oil is fair value for this finite resource that has been found, this year, to be depleting 9% per year in the 400 largest wells of the world.

clipped from biz.yahoo.com LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose above $47 a barrel on Wednesday, climbing from a 3 1/2-year low, after a U.S. government report showed a surprise decline in crude inventories in the world's top consumer. The EIA report also showed fuel consumption continues to contract. Total product demand in the past four weeks averaged 19.27 million bpd, down 6.2 percent from a year ago. Indications that supplies appear to be falling more slowly than expected have also weighed on prices this week.