Crude oil fell as equities declined after lower-than-estimated revenue at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. fanned concern that the U.S. economic rebound will slow, reducing fuel demand.
Oil dropped as much as 1.2 percent after revenue at Goldman Sachs, IBM and Texas Instruments Inc. missed analyst estimates. An Energy Department report tomorrow is forecast to show that U.S. stockpiles of crude oil dropped last week as fuel supplies increased.
“Oil is moving on non-oil market factors,” said Kyle Cooper, a managing director at energy consultant IAF Advisors in Houston. “Equities are driving the oil market through earnings season. At some point the oil market will diverge and start to move on its own fundamentals.”
Crude oil for August delivery fell 65 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $75.89 a barrel at 9:40 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The August contract expires today. The more-active September contract dropped 69 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $76.21. Futures have lost 4.4 percent this year.
Brent crude oil for September settlement slipped 59 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $75.03 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
China overtook the U.S. as the world’s biggest energy user last year, according to the International Energy Agency. China consumed 2,252 million metric tons of oil equivalent in 2009 in the form of oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear power and renewable sources, Fatih Birol, IEA’s chief economist, said yesterday. That exceeded the 2,170 million tons used by the U.S.
Recent patterns indicate China may surpass the U.S. as an oil importer within a decade, sooner than the IEA expects.
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