The price of crude oil was lingering in the red on Friday, with the recently released data from the two major oil consuming nations, the U.S. and China, depressing traders' sentiment.
NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for March 2010 were at $75.79, down $0.29, a barrel.
Thursday, the Energy Information Administration said U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 0.4 million barrels in the week ended January 15. However, gasoline inventories rose by 3.9 million barrels during the week, while distillate fuel demand is down 6.8 percent.
Furthermore, fears about fading demand from China, the world's number-two consumer of this product, spread as investors speculated that China may boost efforts to restrict credit flow to prevent its economy from overheating after growth and inflation figures exceeded expectations. Reassuring comments from Chinese central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan who reaffirmed that his country will maintain a moderately loose monetary policy had failed to improve sentiment.
Above all, traders also fear that less money will flow into commodity markets after President Barack Obama proposed tougher bank regulations. Major banks such as Goldman Sachs have helped billions of dollars of speculative money flow into oil and natural gas contracts in the past several years.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar is trading mixed, edging down against euro and the yen and ticking higher versus the Canadian dollar.
Traders were digesting the just released earnings report from Schlumberger Ltd, an oil services firm. The company earned $795 million, or $0.65 per share, for the quarter ended December, down from $1.15 billion, or $0.95 a share, a year ago.
Trading will likely remain range bound ahead of holidays and amidst a light economic calendar.
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