West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were seen trading lower on Thursday, dropping from a four-month high seen in the previous session. Crude prices were dragged lower by China’s manufacturing data which dropped to a seven-month low. Crude traders will focus on the release of the US crude stockpiles report due later in the day.
The North American WTI crude for March delivery dropped 0.32% lower to $102.52 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at the time of writing, and was at $103.19 on Wednesday.
While Brent for April settlement slid 0.54% lower at $109.88 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange at the same time. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $7.33 to WTI for the same month.
HSBC Flash Purchasing Managers Index came in lower than expected as it dropped to a seven-month low of 48.3 points, compared to the previous reading of 49.6 points seen in January while analysts forecasted a reading of 49.5 points. Any reading below 50 indicates a reduction in activity.
On Wednesday, the American Petroleum Institute (API) released the weekly petroleum stockpiles report which also showed a drop in crude stocks last week as imports declined and gasoline inventories increased.
Crude inventories declined by 473,000 barrels to 362.5 million in the week ending February 14, analysts forecasted an increase of 2 million barrels.
The report from the API also revealed crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, declined by 1.8 million barrels.
Oil investors are focusing on the release of crude stockpiles report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) for the previous week, which will be released later in the day.
On Wednesday, the official minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) January meeting were released and revealed that Fed members backed the decision to reduce the central bank’s monthly bond purchases by another $10 billion to $65 billion a month.
The minutes suggested that the FOMC policymakers decided to modify their commitment to keep their benchmark interest rate near zero as the unemployment rate approaches its 6.5% target.
The next Federal Open Market Committee meeting is scheduled for March 18-19.
The ongoing protest in Libya continues to weigh on the oil supply from the country’s largest oil field El Sharara as production dropped to 375,000 barrels per day, a spokesman from National Oil Corporation (NOC) confirmed.
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