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NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Crude futures were lower Wednesday as jitterspersist about the global economy and traders await key data on oil inventories from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery recently traded 31 cents lower at $82.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brentcrude on the ICE futures exchange traded 18 cents lower at $84.55 abarrel.
Crude fell to a two-week low of $81.18 earlier in the session, asharp retreat from highs above $88 a barrel last Thursday. Expectations that China will move to curb growth and renewed fears about Europe' sdebt crisis sparked by Ireland have combined to send energy andcommodity markets lower.
China is the world's largest consumer of energy, and it has already acted to try and slow growth by raising interest rates and putting restrictions on bank lending. The country's thirst for oil is increasing rapidly, and any slow down would put pressure on crude demand while supplies remain high.
"The deteriorating situation in the euro zone is dovetailing withan increasingly worrisome situation in China. Markets there are definitely picking up a tightening scent wafting through the economy,"said MF Global analyst Edward Meir in a client note.
Analysts said a larger-than-anticipated drop in the oil inventory report from the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday should leadto a pause in selling ahead of the more closely watched data from theEnergy Department's Energy Information Administration, due 10:30 a.m.EST Wednesday.
"We've been hit 7% since last Thursday, so it seems like we'll seea bit of support here ahead of inventories," said Matt Smith, ananalyst with Summit Energy.
The API said U.S. crude oil stocks fell by 7.652 million barrels,well beyond expectations for a modest decline, in the week ended Nov.12, while gasoline stocks declined 1.653 million barrels, also morethan expected. But inventories of distillate, which include heating oiland gasoline, rose a modest 222,000 barrels despite a forecast for alarge drop.
Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones News wires had forecast crude oil stocks to slip by 100,000 barrels, gasoline stocks to decline by 600,000 barrels, and distillate stocks to fall by 2.2 million barrels.
Front-month December reformulated gasoline blend stock, or RBOB,recently traded 0.13 cent, higher at $2.1570 a gallon. December heatingoil recently traded 1.35 cents lower at $2.2955 a gallon.
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[ 此帖被focus在2010-11-18 11:12重新编辑 ]