Oil remains below $97 a barrel

NEW YORK (AP) — A stronger dollar and higher interest rates in China are keeping a lid on oil.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery lost 39 cents at $96.50 per barrel in afternoon trading today on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price many international oil varieties, dropped 17 cents to $113.44 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Crude had been rising since last week, nearly recovering from a late-June drop to around $90 a barrel after the announcement that the U.S. and other countries would release 60 million barrels of crude into world markets.

Some investment banks said prices would head higher anyway as world supplies tightened later this year. By today investors were again focused on short-term concerns about the global economy.