MW: Oil futures gain as traders cheered by J.P. Morgan
Oil futures gained nearly 2% Thursday, as traders shrugged off mostly weak economic data from Europe, the U.S. and China and drew some optimism from J.P. Morgan Chase's earnings, which beat analysts' estimates.
Crude oil for May delivery rose 93 cents, or 1.9%, to $50.16 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.
On Wall Street, U.S. stock pointed to opening gains on Thursday, as J.P. Morgan Chase reported that its first-quarter net income fell 10%, but that wasn't as bad as analysts had anticipated. See Indications.
Energy traders sifted through a raft of economic reports for glimmers of hope that the pace of global economic decline may be slowing. An economic recovery is seen as key to a rebound in energy demand.
The Commerce Department estimated Thursday that housing starts fell 10.8% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 510,000 from 572,000 in February. It's the second-lowest rate since the 1940s.
Meanwhile, building permits dropped 9% to a 513,000 seasonally adjusted annual pace, the lowest on record. See Economic Report.
Separately, first-time claims for state unemployment benefits in the latest week fell to their lowest level since the end of January, the Labor Department reported Thursday, even as continuing jobless claims remained at a record high.
China said Thursday that its economy grew at a slightly better-than-expected rate of 6.1% in the first quarter, buoyed by strong fixed-asset investment and firming industrial production, adding to an emerging picture of an economy that's on the mend.
The growth rate was still slower than the 6.8% expansion in the fourth quarter. Read more.
In Europe, data showed that industrial production across the 16-nation euro-zone plunged sharply in February, reflecting a slowdown across all industrial sectors. The statistics agency Eurostat on Thursday said industrial production fell 2.3% from January.
Compared with February 2008, production plunged 18.4%, the biggest annual drop since records began in 1990. See full story.
Also on Globex, May reformulated gasoline rose 3 cents to $1.48 a gallon and May heating oil gained 2 cents to $1.43 a gallon.
May natural-gas futures fell 8 cents to $3.61 per million British thermal units.
The Energy Information Administration will report data on natural-gas inventories at 10:30 a.m. Eastern on Thursday. IHS Global Insight is projecting a storage build of 17 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 10.
