May contracts fall 36 cents, or 0.3%, to $103.25 a barrel
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Oil futures retreated Thursday, undercut by weak Chinese economic data as investors digested the latest supply-and-demand data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, encouraging U.S. jobs data and continued tensions in Ukraine.
Nymex WTI crude oil futures for May delivery CLK4 -0.35% fell 36 cents, or 0.3%, to $103.25 a barrel. ICE May Brent crude UK:LCOK4 -0.51% declined 58 cents, or 0.5%, to $107.40 a barrel.
Official data said Chinese exports fell 6.6% from a year earlier in March after dropping more than 18% year-over-year in February. Economists had penciled in a 2.8% rise.
Futures were little moved by data that showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell 32,000 to a nearly seven-year low of 300,000 in the week ended April 5. Economists had forecast a more modest drop to 320,000.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, said in a monthly report that its oil production fell by more than a half-million barrels a day last month to 29.6 million barrels. But it raised its forecast for non-OPEC supply growth this year and left its 2014 demand outlook unchanged.
Meanwhile, continued unrest in Ukraine were seen underpinning prices while traders also awaited the reopening of export terminals in Libya.
“As far as ICE Brent is concerned, tensions over in Ukraine will remain in focus with limited upside as market participants keep an eye on supply restarts in Libya,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, strategist at VTB Capital in London.
May natural gas futures NGK14 -1.20% fell more than 5 cents, or 1.2%, to $4.53 per million British thermal units. May gasoline RBK4 -0.71% fell 2 cents to $2.99 a gallon.
