ND:WTI oil futures hold near 6-week low in cautious trade
Investing.com - U.S. oil futures edged modestly higher on Thursday, but prices remained near the previous session's six-week low as investors remained cautious ahead of Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in February traded at USD92.65 a barrel during European morning trade, up 0.35%. New York-traded oil futures held in a tight range between USD92.48 a barrel and USD92.84 a barrel.
The February contract slumped to USD92.26 a barrel on Wednesday, the lowest since November 29, before trimming losses to settle at USD92.33 a barrel, down 1.43%.
Nymex oil futures were likely to find support at USD91.79 a barrel, the low from November 27 and resistance at USD94.18 a barrel, the high from January 8.
Wednesday's losses came following the release of disappointing weekly U.S. supply data, which showed a larger-than-expected increase in U.S. distillate stocks and gasoline supplies.
Investors turned their attention to Fridays' U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for indications on the timing of further reductions to the pace of the Federal Reserve's stimulus program.
Wednesday's minutes of the Fed's December meeting showed that the central bank cited a stronger labor market in its decision to cut its asset purchase program by USD10 billion, reducing it to USD75 billion-a-month.
The minutes also showed that officials were keen to stress that further reductions were not on a "preset course" and would be undertaken in "measured" steps.
The minutes came on the heels of a report showing that the U.S. private sector added the largest number of jobs since November 2012 last month. ADP nonfarm payrolls rose by 238,000 in December, easily surpassing expectations for an increase of 200,000.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil futures for February delivery inched up 0.3% to trade at USD107.46 a barrel, while the spread between the Brent and U.S. crude contracts stood at USD14.81 a barrel.
London-traded Brent prices were underpinned amid linger worries over a disruption to supplies from Libya.
