The price of crude oil was down marginally Thursday morning after China said inflation rose to a 16-month high of 2.7% in February, fueling speculation that the country will tighten its monetary policy sooner than expected to cool of its economy.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for April 2010 were down $0.08 to $82.01 a barrel. Yesterday, oil rose above $83-mark intra-day after OPEC raised its outlook on demand, but settled at $82.09.
Yesterday, the Energy Information Administration report said US crude stockpiles rose 1.4 million barrels in the week ended March 5, lesser than Analysts' expectations for an increase by 2.1 million barrels. Gasoline stocks fell by 2.9 million barrels in the week, steeper than the expected decline by 0.33 million barrels
In corporate news, BP Plc said today that it will spending $7 billion for exploration rights, mainly in Brazil.
Traders will look to weekly jobless claims and trade balance data from the U.S., scheduled for release later today, to gauge the strength in the recovery of the economy. Economists expect jobless claims to decline by 9,000 to 460,000 from 469,000 reported for the previous week. A slight drop in initial jobless claims is expected to be positive for oil prices. But a continuing deficit in trade balance may weigh on oil prices as well.
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