Crude-oil futures were lower in Asian trading hours Monday after Chinese manufacturing data for January posted a decline, implying weaker oil-demand growth.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $97.11 a barrel at 0556 GMT, down $0.38 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.12 to $106.28 a barrel.
The China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, released over the weekend, dropped to a six-month low of 50.5 in January from 51.0 in December, raising concerns about the pace of growth and oil demand. The number was in line with expectations.
"While the Chinese New Year could cause some seasonal weakness in the PMI reading, we note that the seasonal pattern was minimal in the past two years," Barclays analyst Jian Chang said in a note.
"In our view, much of the decline reflects a downbeat demand outlook and suggests continued softening in growth momentum," Ms. Chang said.
Slowing growth in China has pointed to potentially softer oil demand in the world's second-largest oil consumer, in spite of upbeat energy agency forecasts earlier this year that projected stronger fuel consumption.
"Chinese oil demand growth has shown signs of moderating over the fourth quarter of 2013, and we expect it to maintain a similar growth rate this year, in line with trends in its industrial activity forecasts," Barclays analyst Miswin Mahesh said.
He said the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to continue tapering bond purchases and some recent weak oil demand data "suggest downside risks to our near-term non-OECD oil demand forecasts."
Money managers, including hedge funds and pension funds, raised their bullish bets on oil prices in the week ended Jan. 28, by 13% to 260,282 from a week earlier, CFTC data showed. The bets on rising crude-oil prices are at the highest level since Dec. 31.
Financial markets will be focused on U.S. manufacturing numbers later in the trading day and U.S. monthly nonfarm payrolls report later this week.
Most Asian financial markets were closed on Monday for the Lunar New Year and will resume trading on Tuesday.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for March--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 59 points to $2.6373 a gallon, while March heating oil traded at $3.0039, 68 points higher.
ICE gasoil for February changed hands at $911.25 a metric ton, down $5.75 from Friday's settlement.
