US crude oil holds just under $96

Crude oil prices dipped slightly Friday in New York but held slightly less than $96 per barrel.Prices are balanced between high supplies in the United States and optimism demand from Chinese manufacturing and U.S. drivers will remain strong through the second quarter. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude oil shed 43 cents to $95.96 per barrel. Gasoline prices lost 2.97 cents to $2.8554 a gallon. Home heating oil dropped a marginal 0.0318 cents to $2.9048 a gallon. Natural gas was off 0.077 cents at $3.906 per million British thermal units. At the pump, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $3.56 Friday, up from Thursday's $3.549, the AAA Fuel Gauge Report said.