Crude Oil Falls for a Seventh Day on Signs of Slowing Economy, Fuel Demand
July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Thomas Schroeder, managing director at Chart Partners Group Ltd., talks with Bloomberg's Rishaad Salamat about technical analysis of the oil market. Speaking from Bangkok, Schroeder also discusses the outlook for U.S. and Asia-Pacific stocks, commodity demand and the Australian dollar. (Source: Bloomberg)
Crude oil traded near a one-month low in New York as equity markets declined, fanning concern that the economic recovery may falter and impede fuel demand.
Oil erased earlier gains as the MSCI World Index declined 0.7 percent and the Europe Stoxx 600 Index dropped 1.3 percent. China’s economic situation faces growing uncertainties and is becoming more complex, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics was quoted today as saying in the bureau’s newspaper. The country is the world’s second-largest crude consumer.
“We see rather weak equity data, rather weak economic indicators,” said Hannes Loacker, an analyst at Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich in Vienna. “There’s still this correlation. The most important thing is China. If growth fears in China increase, that’s not good for commodities.”
Oil for August delivery traded at $71.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:58 a.m. London time. The contract fell yesterday to $71.98, its lowest level since June 8, and has lost 8.7 percent in seven days.
Brent crude for August was up 3 cents at $71.48 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange.
The U.S. Energy Department may say tomorrow that inventories of crude oil probably dropped last week as Hurricane Alex crossed the Gulf of Mexico, curbing domestic production and imports, a Bloomberg News survey showed.
Stockpiles fell 2.75 million barrels in the seven days ended July 2 from 363.1 million the week before, according to the median of eight analyst estimates. Seven of the respondents forecast a decrease and one estimated a gain.
The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute will publish its weekly report on supply and demand at 4:30 p.m. local time in Washington today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Schmollinger in Singapore at christian.s@bloomberg.net
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