Crude oil slips to less than $101 in New York

Crude oil slipped to less than $101 per barrel Tuesday after a Senate proposal that would avert a default crisis ran into roadblocks in the House. House leaders said they would rush to put their own spending bill to a vote this evening, The Wall Street Journal reported. But the delay puts debate deeper into fingernail biting time. The U.S. Treasury Department has said leaders need to strike a deal by Thursday or the government would begin to default on some of its bills. The headlines are all the more influential this week, as the Energy Information Administration failed to put out a weekly inventory report due to the U.S. government shutdown. The report lasted longer than some. EIA said it had the resources to put out two weekly reports, but no more if the shutdown continued. And that's what they did. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas intermediate crude shed $1.43 or 1.4 percent to $100.98 per barrel. Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices lost 0.64 cents to $2.6604 per gallon. Home heating oil lost 1.92 cents to $3.0125 per gallon. Natural gas shed 2 cents to reach $3.80 per million British thermal units. At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline rose to $3.347 per gallon from Monday's $3.343, AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.