Oil continues slide, nears $57

Futures lose almost another one percent on top of Wednesday's big loss as warm weather continues; inventories on tap.

January 4 2007: 9:40 AM EST

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil continued its selloff Thursday, losing more than 1 percent in premarket trade after sliding more than 4 percent Wednesday as the Northeast U.S. continued to bask in warm weather despite what should be the coldest time of the year.

U.S. crude for February delivery fell 80 cents to $57.52 a barrel in pre-market trade.

Traders are awaiting inventory numbers from the U.S. government, due at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Analysts are looking for a decline in crude supplies of 800,000 barrels, while distillates should increase by 900,000 barrels and gasoline supplies are expected to gain by 1.5 million barrels, according to Reuters.

But a staffer on Reuters' energy desk warned that actual numbers could be far from these estimates, saying EIA made a mistake in a recent previous survey.

The resumption of crude shipments to the Houston area could also effect EIA numbers. Fog had prevented several tanker deliveries for the last few weeks, and the reopening of ports could swell inventories.

Oil prices have fallen over 25 percent from highs reached in July and have been range-bound near $60 for the last few months.

Stocks of oil majors, including BP (Charts), ExxonMobil (Charts), ConocoPhillips (Charts), Chevron (Charts) and Royal Dutch Shell (Charts), stopped mirroring crude prices in mid-September and rebounded as traders bet on rising oil prices and looked for deals in a sector many saw as undervalued.

But over the last few weeks the traditional relationship with oil stock prices tracking the cost of crude has been reestablished.