MW: Oil falls further after jobs report, supply data
By Claudia Assis and Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures added to losses Wednesday after a report showed slower hiring in the U.S. private sector and after a closely watched weekly U.S. supply report.
Crude for June delivery CLM2 -1.10% lost 65 cents, or 0.6%, to $105.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Energy Information Administration reported a rise in crude supplies by 2.8 million barrels, in line with expectations.
Analysts polled by Platts had expected a rise of 2.5 million barrels.
The EIA also reported a decline in gasoline inventories by 2 million barrels, and a decline in distillates supplies by 1.9 million barrels. The Platts analysts had expected gasoline stockpiles down 1 million barrels and distillates supplies down 400,000 barrels.
Crude’s losses followed a 1.2% gain made in the North American trading session Tuesday, after an upbeat U.S. manufacturing report buoyed investor confidence in the economic recovery. Read more on U.S. manufacturing.
Manufacturing activity in China also improved last month, but remained in contraction territory, the final reading of a monthly survey by HSBC released Wednesday showed.
The result comes one day after official data revealed a slight pick-up in activity at Chinese factories. Read more on China's HSBC April PMI.
Also Wednesday, payrolls processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. data showed gains in private employment in April at their weakest in seven months. Read more about the ADP report.
The report comes ahead of official data on the job market due Friday, which is likely to be “the next (oil) market-moving headline,” said Tariq Zahir, a managing member with Tyche Capital in New York.
June gasoline RBM2 -1.08% retreated $2 cents, or 0.5%, at $3.08 a gallon, while heating oil for the same month’s delivery HOM2 -1.23% declined less than 2 cents, or 0.8%, to $3.15 a gallon.
Natural gas for June NGN12 -1.58% also lost ground, off 4 cents, or 1.7%, to $2.33 per million British thermal units. The contract on Tuesday rallied 3.8% on follow-through buying after a Monday report showed reduced production in the lower 48 states.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
