By ARPAN MUKHERJEE
Crude oil prices fell in the Asian session Wednesday on weak demand signals from China, and investors are likely to remain cautious ahead of the weekly stockpile data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in August traded at $94.57 a barrel at 0620 GMT, down 75 cents in the Globex electronic session. August Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell 46 cents to $100.80 a barrel.
Weak macroeconomic sentiment in China along with persistent tight liquidity in the country's financial sector are weighing on crude oil prices, said Yusuke Seta, a broker at Newedge Japan.
"There has been a sizable liquidation, but the [Brent] price trend appears to have bottomed out," Mr. Seta said.
He expects August Brent crude to find support at $100/bbl, while resistance is tipped at $102.90/bbl.
For Nymex crude, Mr. Seta said though there are signs of some recovery in the U.S. economy, supplies remain plentiful, indicating weak fundamentals.
He expects August Nymex crude to trade between $94/bbl and $96/bbl in the near term.
Market attention will now be turning to the weekly crude oil stockpiles data, considered a good gauge of supply and demand for U.S. oil. The data is expected at 1430 GMT.
Data from the EIA are expected to show that domestic oil inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels for the week ended June 21, according to a survey of analysts by Dow Jones Newswires.
These analysts expect gasoline stockpiles to increase by 660,000 barrels, and stocks of distillate, which include heating oil and diesel, to have increased by 500,000 barrels last week. Refiners are expected to increase operations by 0.3 percentage point, according to the survey.
Oil trading advisory firm Ritterbusch & Associates expects economic news such as the third-estimate of the U.S. gross domestic product for the first quarter to overshadow the weekly stock statistics. Ritterbusch expects crude stocks to fall by 2 million-3 million barrels.
At 0620 GMT, oil product futures were down.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for July --the benchmark gasoline contract-- fell 107 points to $2.7267 a gallon, while July heating oil traded at $2.8461, 123 points lower.
ICE gasoil for July changed hands at $863 a metric ton, down $8.50 from Tuesday's settlement.
