Oil prices rise on short covering, gasoline strength

By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Wednesday as investors covered short positions when a big rise in U.S crude inventories was not as massive as many had feared, and as gasoline futures got a boost from a surprise decline in inventories of the fuel. U.S. crude stocks rose 13.8 million barrels in the last week as refineries cut output, while gasoline stocks decreased, the Energy Information Administration said. "A lot of the downside was already priced in," said Rob H