BLBG:Oil Drops From Three-Day High as China Crude Consumption Falls
Oil dropped from the highest closing price in three days in New York after a report showed that Chinese consumption is slowing.
Futures slid as much as 0.9 percent as Chinese customs data showed the country’s apparent oil demand dropped to the lowest level since October. A separate report indicated Chinese manufacturing may shrink for a sixth month. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. closed a recommendation to trade the difference between two futures contracts in New York.
“Negative data from China is contributing to oil’s weakness today,” said Christopher Bellew, a senior broker at Jefferies Bache Ltd. in London, who correctly predicted Brent’s advance to $120 a barrel earlier this year. “Brent has slipped into a lower range.”
Crude for June delivery fell as much as 88 cents to $103 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $103.03 at 10:27 a.m. London time. The contract climbed 1.1 percent to $103.88 on April 20, the highest close since April 17. Prices are up 4.5 percent this year.
Brent oil for June settlement on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange was down 56 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $118.20 a barrel. The European benchmark contract was at a premium of $14.98 to New York futures, compared with $14.88 on April 20.
Rising Prices
China’s apparent oil demand dropped to 9.51 million barrels a day in March, the lowest level since October, according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on customs data released today. The measure is calculated by adding production and net imports of oil products.
China accounted for 11 percent of the world’s oil consumption in 2010, compared with 21 percent for the U.S., according to BP Plc’s Statistical Review of World Energy. China raised retail gasoline and diesel prices last month, which the International Energy Agency said may reduce demand further.
“Traditionally strong second-quarter demand, with diesel demand supported by the spring ploughing season, should be restrained in the second quarter of this year,” the agency said in its monthly Oil Market Report on April 12.
Manufacturing may contract this month, according to a preliminary reading of a purchasing managers index for China by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics. It came in at at 49.1 for April, compared with a final 48.3 in March. A number below 50 points to a contraction.
Storage Levels
Goldman Sachs ended its recommendation to sell New York crude futures for May and buy June contracts after the trading strategy resulted in a loss of 17 cents a barrel. The recommendation was first made Feb. 7 on speculation that oil inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, would rise before the reversal of the Seaway pipeline, which will transport crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
While stockpiles did increase, a buildup of storage capacity at Cushing probably kept the level of supplies from creating greater pressure on the spread between the two contracts, David Greely, head of energy research in New York, said in the report e-mailed today.
Oil may be supported by increased demand in the U.S., the world’s biggest user of the commodity. Consumer spending gained 2.3 percent last quarter, according to the median estimate of 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before an April 27 Commerce Department report. That would be the largest increase since the end of 2010.
Money managers, including hedge funds, commodity pools and commodity trading advisers, increased bullish oil wagers by 7,477, or 3.9 percent, to 199,304 futures and options combined in the seven days ended April 17, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Commitments of Traders report on April 20. That’s the first gain in five weeks.
To contact the reporter on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss on sev@bloomberg.net
