MW: Oil falls in sympathy with stocks, inventories on tap
By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures fell Tuesday, tracking stocks as the latest round of corporate earnings disappointed.
Crude oil for August delivery lost 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $76.76 a barrel, paring losses from earlier trading.
Most energy futures followed crude lower, but natural gas bucked the trend to post 1.2% gains. August natural gas added 5 cents to $4.56 per million British thermal units.
Stocks opened lower Tuesday as quarterly reports from bellwether companies fell short of expectations, including results for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS 146.56, +0.88, +0.60%) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM 125.17, -4.62, -3.56%) .
Traders also digested news that China had surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest energy consumer last year, according to International Energy Agency data cited in the Wall Street Journal.
"As China grows in importance, the dependence of energy prices on the U.S. economy also decreases, similar to what we have already seen with metals," analysts at Commerzbank said.
Other analysts worried what China's ascent in consumption could mean for the U.S.
"The truth is that our leadership in energy consumption reflected our leadership as a global economic growth engine that fed the world," said Phil Flynn, an analyst with PFG Best.
Traders also awaited the week's round of inventories report, with the American Petroleum Institute publishing its inventory data for last week after close of trading Tuesday.
A decline around 1 million barrels in crude stocks is expected. A reduction for last week would be the fourth in a row.
The Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration reports its more closely watched, official inventories report on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
