Oil prices flopped late in Thursday’s trading session after being largely unchanged most of the day with opinions divided about recent U.S. inventory data and this weekend’s meeting between the world’s big oil exporters. Light, sweet crude for May delivery settled down 26 cents, or 0.6%, to $41.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It spent most of the U.S. trading session just barely in positive territory, and made its sharp turn into losses with less than 15 minutes left before the 2:30 p.m. EDT settlement. Brent, the global benchmark, settled down 34 cents, or 0.8%, at $43.84 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Oil prices have been fluctuating since Wednesday when U.S. inventory data showed mixed results about changes in U.S. stockpiles. Crude stockpiles grew sharply, but that was balanced out by strong declines in gasoline stockpiles and a large draw from storage at the U.S. […]