By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen Crude-oil futures rebounded slightly in Asian trading Friday, after news of a potential pullback of the U.S. Federal Reserve's easy monetary policy, disappointing China manufacturing data and higher inventories had pulled prices sharply lower the previous day. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in August traded at $95.69 a barrel at 0638 GMT, up $0.55 in the Globex electronic session. August Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose $0.69 to $102.84 a barrel. Crude prices began the session by extending Thursday's losses but then rebounded as investors used the sharp declines to regain positions in the market. Still, prices are headed for their biggest weekly decline since the first week of April. "We see little chance that the current negative sentiment toward commodities will change quickly," said analysts at ANZ. Oil was pulled lower along with other commodities following comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the central bank may begin curtailing its bond-buying program later this year. The stimulus measures have supported prices for commodities, including oil. Signs of a further slowdown in China's economy also weighed on sentiment. Preliminary manufacturing data for June showed an unexpected steep contraction, while tight liquidity in the Chinese banking system has pushed up interest rates, in part due to slowing inflows of foreign capital. China's crude imports have fallen in recent months compared with last year. Imports stood at 5.56 million barrels a day in May, down 6% from the same month last year. Looking ahead, the market is expected to pick up in the third quarter on stronger seasonal demand and higher refining throughput. Rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East could also affect oil markets should the conflict in Syria spread to other parts of the key oil-producing region. "The long-running conflict in Syria has little fundamental market impact, but fears of a spillover into neighboring oil producers are likely to see jittery Brent trading this summer," said analysts at VTB Capital. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for July--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 96.00001 points to $2.7968 a gallon, while July heating oil traded at $2.8870, 148 points higher. ICE gasoil for July changed hands at $875.75 a metric ton, unchanged from Thursday's settlement. Write to Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen at jacob.pedersen@dowjones.com

Source