Investing.com - Oil futures traded slightly higher during Monday’s Asian session despite data from China released over the weekend that could ignite fresh fears that the world’s second-largest is not growing as briskly as some investors have been hoping for.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for July delivery rose 0.14% to USD96.17 per barrel in Asian trading Monday after settling up 1.54% at USD96.22 a barrel on Friday in the U.S.
A strong May jobs report lifted crude at the end of last week. In U.S. economic news delivered last Friday, the U.S. Labor Department said the U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May, but added the unemployment rate rose to 7.6% from 7.5%. The April reading was revised lower to 149,000 from 165,000 while the March reading was revised down to 138,000 from 142,000.
However, traders appear a bit more reserved about oil futures Monday after China, the world’s second-largest economy behind the U.S., delivered a raft of disappointing data. After a crackdown by Chinese officials on manipulators that use currency conversions to boost export data, Chinese exports showed an increase of just 1% last month. Exports to the U.S. and European Union, China’s two largest export markets, declined for a third consecutive month.
Imports fell 0.3%, well below the expected 6% increase. China's consumer inflation dropped to 2.1%, below the expected reading of 2.5%, while producer prices fell 2.9%. Analysts expected PPI to drop 2.5%. Retail sales rose 12.9%, which met expectations.
Fixed-asset investment and industrial production also met analysts’ expectations with year-over-year gains of 20.4% and 9.2%. China’s M2 money supply rose 15.8%, but that was below the expected 15.9% increase. New loans totaled 667.4 million yuan, but that missed expectations of 850 billion yuan and down from April's 792.9 billion yuan.
The U.S. and China are the world’s two largest oil consumers. Elsewhere, Brent futures for July delivery rose 0.11% to USD104.49 per barrel.