Crude oil futures edge lower after China data, Fed minutes

Investing.com - Crude oil futures inched lower on Thursday, as disappointing manufacturing data from China and growing concerns over a reduction in U.S. stimulus weighed on appetite for riskier assets.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at USD93.65 a barrel during European morning trade, down 0.2%.

New York-traded oil futures traded in a range between USD93.47 a barrel, the daily low and a session high of USD93.83 a barrel.

The January contract settled 0.04% lower on Wednesday to end at USD93.85 a barrel.

Oil futures were likely to find support at USD92.51 a barrel, the low from November 14 and resistance at USD94.94 a barrel, the high from November 18.

Data released earlier showed that China’s HSBC manufacturing index ticked down to 50.4 in November, from a final reading of 50.9 in October, missing forecasts for a reading of 50.8.

China is the world's second largest oil consumer and manufacturing numbers are used as indicators for fuel demand growth.
 
Meanwhile, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy meeting indicated the central bank could start to taper its bond-purchasing program at one of its next meetings.

According to the minutes, policymakers said they could start scaling back the USD85 billion-a-month asset purchase program in the “coming months” if the economy continues to improve as expected.

Investors are now looking ahead to key U.S. economic data due later in the session to further gauge the strength of the economy and the need for further stimulus.

The U.S. was release data on producer price inflation, as well as the weekly report on initial jobless claims and data manufacturing activity from the Philly Fed.

U.S. crude prices have been on a downward trend in recent weeks amid concerns the U.S. government shutdown created a drag on economic growth and eroded demand in the world’s largest oil consumer.

Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 388.5 million barrels as of last week, the highest since June.

Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for January delivery inched down 0.15% to trade at USD107.89 a barrel, with the spread between the Brent and crude contracts standing at USD14.24 a barrel.

Oil traders continued to monitor talks between Iran and six major powers in Geneva aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program and relaxing sanctions against the oil producer.

London-traded Brent prices rallied 1.07% on Wednesday after a U.S. official said it would be "very hard" to get a nuclear agreement this week with Iran.

Trade sanctions slapped on Iran due to its alleged nuclear ambitions have taken out more than one million barrels per day of oil from the global market.