Crude oil rose in New York after the number of Americans first-time filings for jobless claims dropped to the lowest level since April. Futures climbed as much as 0.8 percent as the Labor Department said applications for unemployment benefits decreased 22,000 to 405,000 last week. Prices slipped 0.5 percent earlier after Moody’s Investors Service put the U.S. Aaa rating under review as talks to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit stalled. “Oil in New York popped after the jobless numbers came out slightly better than we expected,” said Tom Bentz, a broker with BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. in New York. “We had been lower on the news that Moody’s could possibly lower the U.S. credit rating and the weaker dollar.” Crude oil for August delivery increased 62 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $98.67 a barrel at 9:27 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has risen 28 percent in the past year. Brent crude oil for August settlement fell 18 cents to $118.60 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. The August contract expires today. The more actively traded September futures were down 22 cents at $117.63. Front-month Brent, the European benchmark, traded at a premium of $19.91 a barrel to U.S. futures. That’s down from record of $22.29 on June 15, based on settlement prices. Moody’s put the U.S. on review for the first time since 1995 as concern grew that political gridlock will lead to default. The American government has held a Aaa rating with Moody’s since 1917. “With the failure of the U.S. government to solve the debt ceiling issue and Moody’s warning of a credit-rating downgrade, uncertainty levels are high,” David Wech, head of research at Vienna-based researcher JBC Energy GmbH, said in a note today. The Energy Department said yesterday U.S. crude stockpiles declined 3.1 million barrels last week to 355.5 million. Supplies were projected to drop 1.5 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute said in a separate report on July 12 that inventories rose 2.34 million barrels. To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net.

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