Oil traded near $74 a barrel after declining as a Department of Energy report showed a bigger- than-forecast increase in US crude inventories and as China sought to cool its economic expansion.
Oil dropped Feb. 12 as China ordered banks to set aside more deposits as reserves for the second time in a month. The euro region's gross domestic product grew less than forecast in the fourth quarter of last year, a report showed last week. Japan's economic growth accelerated more than expected last quarter, figures from the Cabinet Office showed today.
"Further steps taken by the Chinese to tighten their bank lending and slightly weaker-than-expected European growth data were a negative for sentiment," said Toby Hassall, commodity analyst at CWA Global Markets Pty in Sydney. "The DOE data wasn't supportive of higher prices. The crude number was a bit higher than expected."
Crude oil for March delivery traded at $74.18 a barrel, up 5 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 12:11 p.m. Sydney time. The contract fell $1.15, or 1.5%, to settle at $74.13 on Feb. 12. Futures have dropped 6.4% this year.
The Department of Energy report was delayed for two days to Feb. 12 because of back-to-back blizzards which shut the government in Washington for the first four days of last week.
Source & Full Article BloombergUTV
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