By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures lost ground in electronic trade Tuesday, with a new round of supply data on tap as demand concerns have pulled prices for the commodity to four-month lows.
May crude oil CLK3 -1.14% declined $1, or 1.1%, to $87.73 a barrel in Asian trading hours.
Oil on Monday dropped $2.58, or 2.8%, to $88.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement for a most-active contract since late December, according to FactSet.
Oil and other commodities slid in the previous session after quarterly economic growth and monthly industrial production numbers from China came in weaker than anticipated. The figures ramped up worries that demand for commodities, including oil, will soften.
Highlighting those concerns, the International Energy Agency and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week reduced their global oil-demand estimates for the year slightly.
The American Petroleum Institute was due to release its weekly oil-inventories report later Tuesday, which is slated to be followed Wednesday by data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Analysts polled by Platts expect U.S. commercial crude oil stocks to have risen 1.25 million barrels in week ended April 12.
Last week, the API said crude supplies rose 5.1 million barrels, much higher than the Platts consensus estimate of a 1.4 million-barrel increase. The trade group also upwardly revised total stocks for the week ended March 29.
The EIA last week said crude supplies rose 300,000 barrels, although that was much less than the Platts estimate.
London-traded May Brent crude UK:LCOK3 -2.76% on Tuesday was unchanged at $100.39 a barrel. Brent fell $2.72, or 2.6%, in trading Monday.
Meanwhile, May gasoline futures RBK3 -0.68% fell 3 cents, or 0.9%, to $2.73 a gallon, extending Monday’s loss of 1.6%.
But May natural-gas futures NGK13 +0.41% were higher by 0.1% at $4.141 per million British thermal units. Prices tumbled 2% on Monday, nearly wiping out last week’s gain of 2.4%.
CME Group Inc. CME -2.71% , the parent company of the metals and energy exchanges in the U.S., said Monday it is raising the collateral requirements for trading in natural-gas futures by 5.6%, effective at the close of business Tuesday. Margin increases tend to be implemented during times of market turbulence.
Margin increases were also put in place for benchmark gold, silver and other precious-metals futures contracts.
May heating oil HOK3 -1.04% fell less than 1 cent, or 0.2%, to $3.27 a gallon. The futures in the previous session declined 4 cents, or 1.5%.
Carla Mozee is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter @MWMozee.
