MELBOURNE: Oil slid from the highest close in more than two months as investors sold contracts on speculation that crude’s gain was excessive amid signs of weakening demand in the U.S, the world’s biggest consumer of the commodity.
Futures fell as much as 0.5%, dropping for the first time in four days. Oil’s gains stalled near the upper Bollinger Band. Crude consumption declined 4% to 15.9 million barrels last week, the biggest percentage decrease in a month, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed. Gasoline usage was the lowest since February, according to the API figures.
Oil for September delivery decreased as much as 47 cents to US$93.20 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at US$93.29 at 11:13 a.m. Sydney time. It climbed 1.6% yesterday to US$93.67, the highest settlement since May 15. Prices are 5.6% lower this year.
Brent crude for September settlement fell 39 cents, or 0.4%, to US$111.61 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark’s premium to West Texas Intermediate was unchanged from US$18.33 yesterday.
U.S. gasoline demand last week was 3% less than a year ago, the 49th straight drop in that measure, according to a report from MasterCard Inc.
Oil in New York has technical resistance along the upper Bollinger Band on the daily chart, about US$94.96 a barrel today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Futures yesterday halted their advance near this indicator. Sell orders tend to be clustered near chart-resistance levels. (Bloomberg/aph)
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