Oil futures fell early Thursday, feeling pressure after weaker-than-expected import data from China.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery
CL00,
-0.58% CLJ23,
-0.58%
fell 50 cents, or 0.6%, to $79.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. -
May Brent crude
BRN00,
-0.53% BRNK23,
-0.53% ,
the global benchmark, was down 60 cents, or 0.7%, at $85.58 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. -
Back on Nymex, April gasoline
RBJ23,
-0.43%
fell 0.5% to $2.783 a gallon, while April heating oil
HOJ23,
-0.37%
dropped 0.9% to $2.859 a gallon. -
April natural gas
NGJ23,
+1.71%
rose 1% to $2.756 per million British thermal units.
Market drivers
Crude lost ground after data showed China’s imports fell 10.2% during the first two months of the year, compared with a 7.5% decline in December and the 5.1% drop expected by the economists. China’s customs bureau releases trade data for the first two months of the year together to eliminate distortions from the Lunar New Year holiday, which fell in January this year.
The data showed that crude-oil imports remained weak as refiners eased up on purchases ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, wrote analysts at ING, in a note.
They noted that oil imports fell 1.3% year over year to the equivalent of 10.44 million barrels a day over January and February, while fuel exports rose 74% year over year and imports rose only 14%.
“Supply constraints on Russian refined products appear to have supported demand for Chinese fuel products. Looking ahead, China’s crude oil imports could recover over the next quarter as industrial activity picks up and refiners rebuild their stocks,” the analysts wrote.
