ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

August 30, 2006 3:15 PM, EDT

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.

fter falling to a two-month low of $68.65 in afternoon trading, crude oil futures rose 39 cents to close at $70.10 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.

Prices fell in afternoon trading on Wednesday on news that U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Aug. 25 increased 2.48 million barrels to 332.8 million, 12% above the five-year average for the week, Bloomberg reported.

Analysts had expected 1.5 million-barrel decline.

Meanwhile, expectations that Iran would continue to enrich uranium in defiance of Thursday’s U.N. deadline to halt enrichment activity drove prices past the $70 mark, according to Bloomberg.

On Tuesday, crude oil futures dropped 90 cents to close at $69.71 a barrel, falling below $70 a barrel for the first time since June 20, Bloomberg said.