Futures on oil on Thursday closed without any considerable changes having recovered from their lows fixed earlier. Futures had been remaining near the target level of USD 100 per barrel as traders were expecting new orienting points of the US economic development. By the end of NYMEX trades the quotations of July futures on low-sulfur oil increased by 11 cent and equaled USD 100.40 per barrel following a fall down to USD 98.46 per barrel earlier during the trades. Futures on Brent oil gained another USD 1.04 to constitute USD 115.57 per barrel.
After a 2.4% drop on Wednesday oil futures were mixing within most part of trades between positive and negative trends on Thursday. The data showed the growth of oil and gasoline reserves of the US which first caused the prices decline but they were soon back by the mid trading diapason of USD 95-105, persistent since mid May. According to the US Energy Department published on Thursday, the US oil reserves on week May 21-27 rose by 2.9 mln. barrels. Analysts had expected the oil reserves to reduce.
Gasoline reserves also grew in volume by 2.6 barrels which is suggestive of the fourth week of uptrend in a row. It coincided with rather weak economic data for the last few days which was withholding oil prices under pressure. On Wednesday PMI for industrial sector fell short of the forecast while the number of working positions in the US private sector increased last month by 38000. It is less than the expected 190000 gain. Thursday data revealed a slight decrease in the number of the US initial jobless claims. It points at the fact that the long-awaited data on employment may be more adverse than analysts predict. Many investors became more pessimistic about the economic situation last month which was taken into consideration at oil price fall from over USD 113 per barrel in early May. The concerns have been exacerbating regarding slowing China’s economy together with eurozone debt may press down the global economy recovery. Earlier this week the economists of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch lowered its estimation of the US GDP growth in 2011 to 2% from 2.8%. The treat of slowing down is already contributing to less consumption of oil and oil derivatives as companies and consumers have been cutting their spending due to high prices. The US Energy Department data showed that gasoline reserves had been on increase for the fourth week in a row. Distillate inventories, including residual oil and diesel gas oil shrank by 1 mln. barrels. The refinery utilization coefficient dropped by 0.3% and equaled 86%.
