By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — U.S. crude-oil futures slipped Friday, and the commodity was set for its first loss in five weeks as concerns about slowing in the Chinese economy resurfaced.
Crude oil for September delivery CLU3 -0.75% lost 9 cents, or 0.1%, to $105.40 an gallon in electronic trade.
The move nearly erased Thursday’s modest rise of 10 cents a gallon, which came after higher-than-expected U.S. durable-goods orders in June aided demand expectations for crude.
For the week, oil prices were facing a loss of 2.2%, with pressure largely stemming from HSBC figures earlier this week showing manufacturing activity in China fell to an 11-month low in July.
“China has been and remains the key driver of global oil demand, the dynamism of which has this year been lagging considerably behind the expansion of supply,” Commerzbank commodities analysts led by Eugen Weinberg wrote on Thursday.
Continued weakness in demand from the world’s second-largest economy “would thus cause the oversupply to increase even further. Financial investors clearly see this as an opportunity to grab profits, so the oil price is likely to remain under pressure for the time being,” Commerzbank said.
Oil prices for the week found little upside support from data that U.S. crude inventory fell for a fourth straight week. Supplies tallied a four-week decline of nearly 30 million barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but total inventories remain well above the five-year average.
The energy market later Friday will look at the final reading of U.S. consumer sentiment for July, with the survey expected to show a rise to 84 from a preliminary reading of 83.9. Late next week, investors will receive the U.S. government’s widely watched jobs report for July.
Ahead of floor trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, August gasoline RBQ3 +0.29% rose 1 cent, or 0.3%, to $3.03 a gallon. August heating oil also fell 1 cent to $3.03 a gallon.
August natural gas NGQ13 -0.14% shed a penny, or 0.3%, to $3.63 per million British thermal units.
