WTI Crude Drops as Europe Manufacturing Adds to Cyprus Concern

West Texas Intermediate declined after its biggest advance in two weeks as Euro-area services and manufacturing contracted and Cyprus’s president worked on a new plan to secure a financial bailout from the euro area.

Futures dropped as much as 0.8 percent in New York and pared losses after Labor Department figures showed fewer Americans than forecast filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week. The European Central Bank said today it may cut Cypriot banks off from emergency funds after March 25 as the island nation’s president, Nicos Anastasiades, raced to draft a new bailout proposal. Industrial output and services in the euro area shrank more than economists estimated in March.