West Texas Intermediate dropped for the first time in four days amid speculation that a U.S. employment data today will spur the Federal Reserve to keep curtailing bond purchases in the world’s largest oil consumer. Futures fell as much as 0.6 percent in New York. U.S. payrolls for January may have grow faster than a month earlier, according to a Bloomberg survey. China’s services Purchasing Managers’ Index slid to the lowest in more than two years. London-traded Brent was little changed as Libya’s oil output declined after protesters tampered with a pipeline. Oil is “getting a bit of a pullback after hitting a five- week high yesterday and this morning’s disappointing Chinese PMI has taken the edge off further gains,� said Michael Hewson, a London-based market analyst for CMC Markets Plc. The Fed will continue winding down its quantitative easing and the “only way we won’t get another $10 billion reduction in March is if we get a truly bad number,� he said. WTI for March delivery declined as much as 61 cents to $97.23 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $97.35 as of 10:29 a.m. London time. The contract advanced as much as $1.45 to $98.83 yesterday, the highest intraday price since Jan. 2 before settling at $97.84. The volume of all futures traded was about 9 percent below the 100-day average. Brent for March settlement dropped 8 cents to $107.11 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $9.85 to WTI on the ICE exchange, compared with $9.35 yesterday. Benefit Claims U.S. unemployment benefit claims slid more than economists estimated as jobless claims fell by 20,000 to 331,000 in the week ended Feb. 1, the Labor Department reported yesterday in Washington. A decline to 335,000 was projected in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Non-farm payrolls probably rose by 180,000 workers in January after a 74,000 gain in the previous month, according to the median forecast of 92 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The data are due at 8:30 a.m. New York time. In China, the HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics’ services Purchasing Managers’ Index slid to 50.7 percent, the lowest since August 2011, a report today showed. The nation’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to a six-month low of 50.5 in January as output and orders slowed, Feb. 1 data show. Numbers above 50 signal expansion. Tampered Pipeline Oil output in Libya ranged from 450,000 to 500,000 barrels a day, down from 600,000 barrels last week, according to Nuri Berruien, the chairman of National Oil Corp. Protesters demanding money “tampered� with a valve on a pipeline in the northwestern Zintan region, causing output to drop at the Sharara field further south, he said yesterday. Libya, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, holds Africa’s largest crude reserves. Weather forecasters are gauging the possibility of a winter storm arriving this weekend in the U.S. Northeast, which is still clearing snow from two systems earlier this week. Distillate inventories, including heating oil and diesel, shrank for a fourth week in the seven days through Jan. 31, data from the Energy Information Administration show. WTI will probably decline next week as U.S. refineries shut plants for maintenance, reducing crudedemand and bolstering stockpiles, a Bloomberg survey shows. Nineteen of 37 analysts, or 51 percent, forecast futures will decrease through Feb. 14. Ten respondents estimated prices will climb, and eight said there will be little change. Refineries operated at 86.1 percent of capacity in the week ended Jan. 31, according to the EIA, the Energy Department’s statistical arm. That’s the lowest rate since October. Units are often idled at the start of the year after the heating season in November and December.

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