By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures backtracked from an early rebound in Asian trading hours Thursday after gains were capped due to weaker-than-expected industrial output data from China. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $98.19 a barrel at 0550 GMT, up $0.20 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.29 to $ 108.31 a barrel. Industrial production in China undershot expectations to increase 8.6% year-over-year in the January-February period, in yet another indication of slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy. The increase was below the median 9.5% gain forecast by 13 economists in a Wall Street Journal survey. "Some of the numbers coming in below forecast will add to the bearish sentiment in the market and put pressure on crude-oil prices," said Tan Chee Tat, analyst at Phillip Futures. "The underperforming [data] releases from China tend to point to the notion that China's economy is slowing down but we need more evidence to confirm that there is an actual slowdown," he added. Chinese economic indicators have weighed on industrial commodity prices this week, especially in light of concerns of a slowdown in the world's second-largest oil consumer. Nymex WTI crude dropped over 2% overnight and is down 4.48% so far this month on oversupply concerns in the U.S. Brent crude has been somewhat supported by the Ukraine crisis. U.S. crude-oil supplies rose by 6.2 million barrels last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. This topped analyst estimates for a 2 million-barrel rise and is the eighth consecutive week of increase. "With imports only marginally higher the build highlights continued strong U.S. production and easing crude demand into the shoulder season," ANZ said. However, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries boosted its forecast for oil-demand growth for the second month in a row and by 50,000 barrels a day for this year in its monthly report. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for April--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 21 points to $2.9579 a gallon, while April heating oil traded at $2.9279, 24 points higher. ICE gasoil for April changed hands at $897.75 a metric ton, up $2.25 from Wednesday's settlement.

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