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Oil eased below $50 a barrel on Friday, paring Thursday’s gains as mixed U.S. economic data spotlighted the fragile nature of a possible recovery in the world’s top energy user. Crude’s Thursday rise was fuelled by a surge on Wall Street and data showing the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly fell last week
though continuing claims rose to a record as the recession bites. [ID:nN16449133] Preliminary April consumer sentiment data due later on Friday, could throw light on whether the rate of contraction in the U.S. economy is easing. By 0725 GMT, U.S. crude for May delivery CLc1 was down 27 cents at $49.71 a barrel, after having risen 1.5 percent earlier to $49.98. ICE Brent crude for the new front-month of June LCOc1 was down 8 cents at $52.98 a barrel. Crude has fallen about 4.8 percent so far this week. "Crude will probably finish the week around $50 -- there’s not a lot of movement in either direction, and demand fundamentals still lookincreasingly bearish," said Jim
Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates. "Next week, the market will be watching for the expiration of the WTI May contract on Tuesday, and there’s a strong chance we could break below $47on the downside." The Paris-based International Energy Agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have all cut global oil demand
forecasts. The collapse in demand has seen U.S. crude oil inventories soaring to their highest level in 19 years, gaining 5.6 million barrels last week alone, the EIA’s weekly report showed. TheReuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers will release its preliminary April consumer sentiment index at 1355 GMT. Economists in a Reuters poll expect a reading of 58.5
compared with 57.3 in the final March report. U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday as expectations oreassuring results from bellwethers, including Google, lifted
technology shares, while JPMorgan’s better-than-expected profit added to bank stabilisation hopes[.N] On the supply front, prices were supported by news that OPEC’s seaborne oil exports, excluding Angola and Ecuador, would fall 560,000 barrels per day in the four weeks to May 2,
according to the latest estimate by UK consultancy Oil Movements. [ID:n4690] Venezuelan energy minister Rafael Ramirez said on Thursday that oil prices have begun stabilising with a floor of $45 per
barrel. [ID:nN16380525] OPEC meets at the end of May in Vienna to decide if it will
cut output again to support prices. Crude prices have tumbled nearly $100 per barrel since last July, as the global recession dented oil demand, but they have recovered in recent months from a low of$32.40 in December. Amid the gloom, China’s refinery output ticked up in March from a year earlier, its first rise in five months as refiners ramped up supply amid signs of a demand recovery in the world’s second-largest oil consumer.
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