By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures pared losses Thursday after a report showed the number of Americans applying for initial unemployment benefits climbed in the latest week, while economists had been expecting a decline.
Crude-oil futures for September delivery fell 0.8%, or 65 cents, to $81.82 a barrel.
Jobless claims rose by 19,000 to 479,000, the highest level since early April, according to the Labor Department. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected state claims to drop to 453,000 in the week ended July 31. Read about jobless claims.
Crude futures were lower in earlier trading as a stronger dollar and a surprise build in U.S. gasoline inventories reported Wednesday outweighed the positive sentiment generated by rising equity markets.
Rising inventories add to concerns that the U.S. recovery may be stalling, reducing demand, said analysts at Action Economics.
Oil edged down Wednesday, ending a four-day winning streak. See Wednesday's oil report.
"While macroeconomic concerns about the path of global recovery have, by no means, disappeared, they have, nonetheless, faded slightly into the background, with fundamentals returning to the fore," said strategists at Barclays Capital, referring to inventories.
