Investing.com - Crude oil futures were lower on Monday as weak Chinese economic data released over the weekend dampened investor demand for the commodity.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded at USD95.70 a barrel during European morning trade, down 0.35% on the day.
Official data on Sunday showed that China’s imports of crude oil fell 6.0% in May from a year earlier, to 23.95 million tons. China imported 23.08 million tons of crude in April.
A separate report from China’s customs administration showed that China imported 116,000 million tons of crude in the first five months of this year, down 2% from the same period in 2012.
Oil prices continued to be underpinned by last Friday better-than-expected U.S. jobs report.
The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs last month, slightly more than the 170,000 gain forecast by economists. The unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6% from 7.5% in April.
The data indicated that the economic recovery in the U.S is on track but was not enough to show whether the Federal Reserve could to begin to taper its USD85 billion-a-month asset purchase program later this year.
The U.S. is the world’s biggest oil consuming country, responsible for almost 22% of global oil demand.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for June delivery slipped 0.18% to trade at USD104.20 a barrel, with the spread between the Brent and crude contracts standing at USD8.50 a barrel.
