Crude oil futures tumbled in tandem with the Asia equities markets and also as traders booked profits after the counter surged past the $93 a barrel levels yesterday.
Crude oil for April delivery is trading down 24 cents at $ 92.28 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Yesterday, it fell 2 cents to settle at $92.52 a barrel, after a session high of $93.40. The contract had tallied a climb of 2.2% over the past four trading sessions.
Oil fell yesterday as better-than-expected U.S. retail sales lifted the dollar to a seven-month high, putting an end to a four-session climb in dollar-denominated crude prices. A weak global demand forecast as well as a climb in last week’s U.S. crude inventories also put pressure on oil.
The EIA reported a 2.6 million-barrel climb in crude
inventories for the week ended March 8. That compared with the 2.3
million-barrel rise expected by analysts polled by Platts, though API
data released late Tuesday had shown an unexpected 1.4-million-barrel
drop in crude supplies.The International Energy Agency on Wednesday continued to ease its forecast for global oil demand while increasing its projection for supply growth.
On the economic front today, the Bank of Korea kept its key rate on hold at 2.75% for a fifth consecutive month on Thursday, as inflation remained below the South Korean central bank's target range.
Meanwhile, Australia's jobless rate remained steady at 5.4% in February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported Thursday, and the economy added 71,500 jobs in the month.
On Thursday, the U.S. is to release government data on producer price inflation, a leading indicator of price stability, and the weekly government report on initial jobless claims.
MCX March crude oil futures may open today’s session near Rs 5020 levels with support near Rs 5000 and Rs 4970 levels.
Source by Commodity Insights
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