Oil: an overview of the market situation

The price of oil rose today , while reaching a peak in the last 2.5 months , which was associated with the release of better than expected Chinese data and limited oil exports from Libya.

As it became known , the May purchasing managers index (PMI) in China , designed and HSBC Markit Economics, reached a record in 2013 . According to preliminary data , the indicator for the current month rose to 49.7 points. However, he remained below 50 , indicating a decrease in the activity of the business community in the industrial sector of the country. Last month , the indicator was fixed at 48.1 points. Experts expect that the value of the indicator in May was 48.4 points.

The dynamics also affect the data on the U.S. labor market , which showed : The number of initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 28,000 and reached a seasonally adjusted 326,000 in the week ended May 17. Economists predicted that the number of applications will increase to 312,000 . Moving average of four weeks for initial claims , which smooths the volatile weekly data , fell last week to 322,500 in 1000 . The number of repeated requests for unemployment benefits fell by 13,000 and totaled a seasonally adjusted 2.653 million in the week ended May 10. This is the lowest level since December 2007. These figures are based on the one -week delay. The Labor Department said that there were no special factors influencing the data last week.

Meanwhile, adding that prices rose after the U.S. sent Marines unit in Italy, which later may be involved in the evacuation of American citizens from Libya, which rose sharply again tension between the government and the rebels. North African country was producing 215,000 barrels a knock in April , with production capacity of 1.5 million in recent weeks, market participants expected that the market will actively enter the Libyan oil , but this is not happening .

It is also worth noting that the Energy Information Agency on Wednesday announced the reduction of commercial stocks of crude oil by 7 million barrels in the week ending May 16. Analysts expect that stocks will remain unchanged. The main reason that provoked the fall, was a sharp decline in imports, which in comparison with the same period last year decreased by 9 %.

The cost of the July futures on U.S. light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) rose to $ 103.09 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

July futures price for North Sea Brent crude oil mixture rose 20 cents to $ 110.68 a barrel on the London exchange ICE Futures Europe.