Nymex crude oil futures was trading around
$95.02 a barrel while Brent North Sea crude for July delivery was hovering around $103.63 in recent trading sessions.
Traders reduced their long position in crude oil futures following weak unemployment data and housing data in the US. Recent data showed initial jobless claims, a sign of the pace of layoffs, rose 32,000 from the previous week’s revised figure in the US.
In the week ending May 11, new claims for US unemployment insurance benefits rose sharply to 360,000, after coming in unexpectedly low for several weeks, data from the US Labor Department shows.
Weakness in the US job market is a sign of slow pace of recovery in the world’s largest economy and this stoked fear of lower demand for crude oil.
Another data showed construction of new homes in the United States slowed sharply in April following a March surge. But a spike in building permits led analysts to view the decline in starts as a temporary bump in the housing market recovery.
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