US WTI oil prices open the week’s trading session 0.7 percent lower at $103 a barrel after Chinese oil demand declined to the lowest level in five months, sliding to 9.51 million barrels a day in March, the lowest level since October 2011.<\/p>\n
A separate report indicated Chinese manufacturing may shrink for a sixth month. China is the world’s second biggest oil consumer, after America.<\/p>\n
Latest WTI Oil Price<\/strong><\/p>\n US Light crude oil futures for June 2012 delivery was trading at $103.21 a barrel, 09.23 GMT today in electronic trading on the NYMEX.<\/p>\n “Negative data from China is contributing to oil\u2019s weakness today.” said Christopher Bellew, a senior broker at Jefferies Bache Ltd.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, China\u2019s imports of crude oil from Iran fell 54 percent in March from a year earlier to 1.08 million metric tons, according to data released today by the General Administration of Customs.<\/p>\n Chinese Manufacturing Data<\/strong><\/p>\n The early focus in markets was on manufacturing data in China, where the preliminary HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index showed a rise to a two month high of 49.1 in April compared with a final reading of 48.3 in March. Despite the improvement, the sector was in contractionary territory for the sixth straight month.<\/p>\n Standard Chartered economist Lan Shen said that while manufacturing activity accelerated in April, “the employment index rose only marginally from March, so this will add to concerns about a slowdown and employment problems.” This means China is likely to take more steps to loosen monetary policy and also provide fiscal stimulus, she said.<\/p>\n Asian stock markets briefly turned positive, but soon gave up gains as investors digested the implications of the data.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n