Oil was little changed in New York after capping the longest stretch of weekly advances in more than eight years amid signs of economic recovery in the U.S. and China, the world’s biggest crude consumers. Futures traded near a two-day high after rising 2 percent in the week ended Feb. 1, an eighth consecutive gain. China’s services industries grew at the fastest pace since August last month, according to government data yesterday. U.S. payrolls increased by 157,000 workers in January, figures from the Labor Department showed Feb. 1. The dollar traded near the weakest since November 2011 versus the euro, increasing the investment appeal of commodities priced in the U.S. currency. “There’s been an unbroken sequence of decent economic news in recent times, and China services PMI and the employment figures were no exception,� said Ric Spooner, a chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. “That, together with some weakness in the U.S. dollar, is generally helping to support the oil market.� Crude for March delivery was at $97.51 a barrel, down 26 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 1:23 p.m. Singapore time. The volume of all contracts traded was 50 percent below the 100-day average. Futures rose 28 cents to $97.77 on Feb. 1, the highest close since Jan. 30. Brent for March settlement slid 18 cents to $116.58 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The volume of all contracts traded was 7 percent below the 100-day average. The European benchmark grade was at a premium of $19.07 to West Texas Intermediate futures. Relative Strength The dollar was at $1.3631 per euro. It slipped to $1.3711 on Feb. 1, the lowest level in more than 14 months. Oil futures have advanced too quickly for further gains to be sustainable, a technical indicator shows. WTI’s 14-day relative strength index is higher than 70 for a fifth day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Investors typically sell contracts above that level, when a market is considered overbought. Brent’s RSI is at 72.7. In China, the non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 56.2 in January from 56.1 in December, the Beijing-based National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing said in a statement yesterday. A reading above 50 signals expansion. Bullish Bets Hedge funds and refiners vied to buy oil futures last month. Money managers increased net-long positions, or wagers on rising prices, for a seventh week to a nine-month high of 218,604 in the week ended Jan. 29, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Feb. 1 Commitments of Traders report. It was the longest run of gains in records dating back to June 2006. Bullish wagers held by refiners and producers advanced for a fifth week to the most since at least June 2006. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

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