By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
September Brent crude UK:LCOU3 -0.94% also lost ground, falling 57 cents, or 0.5%, to $106.87 a barrel on ICE Futures.
Oil didn’t show much reaction to a slightly better-than-expected initial weekly jobless claims figure, released early Thursday. The number of people who applied for new unemployment benefits rose by 5,000 to 333,000 in the week ended Aug. 3, while economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected claims to climb to 339,000.
“Oil prices have found themselves unable to profit from either the sharp fall in US crude oil stocks or the very robust Chinese import figures,” said Commerzbank analysts in a research note out early Thursday before the jobless claims report. “This should be interpreted as a negative sign and suggests that we will see further price falls in the coming days.”
Crude also has been under pressure in part from an upcoming increase in North Sea oil production after seasonal maintenance work, according to a note distributed Wednesday by Tim Evans, energy futures specialist at Citi Futures and OTC Clearing.
Within the Chinese trade data, imports for crude oil rose 19.6% in July from the year-ago period, accelerating sharply from a 2.1% gain in June.
China said its overall exports rose 5.1% in July, swinging from June’s 3.1% fall. Analysts polled Dow Jones Newswires had expected a 2.8% increase in exports.
Imports, meanwhile, bounced up 10.9% last month on an annual basis, after June’s drop of 0.7%. Analysts were looking for a 1.3% rise for imports.
Oil was among the assets that saw price increases after China’s report, though some economists are skeptical of most Chinese data.
Oil futures on Wednesday dropped 93 cents, or 0.9%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange as prospects for energy demand dimmed following a smaller-than-anticipated drawdown in weekly U.S. crude stocks.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude supplies decreased by 1.3 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 2, to 363.3 million barrels. Analysts surveyed by Platts had expected a decline of 2 million barrels.
Crude stocks are near the upper limit of the average range for this time of year, the EIA said.
Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute posted its own inventory data showing crude stockpiles dropped by a larger-than-expected 3.7 million barrels last week. Oil prices had turned higher in electronic trading after the API report.
In other energy-futures trading Thursday, September gasoline RBU3 -1.15% fell 3 cents to $2.84 a gallon, and September heating oil HOU3 -0.89% shed 3 cents to $2.94 a gallon.
Natural gas for September delivery NGU13 -0.31% , meanwhile, lost less than 1 cent to trade at $3.24 per million British thermal units.
Carla Mozee is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter @MWMozee.
