Stronger Chinese manufacturing pushed the price of oil higher Thursday, Oct 24, but gains were kept in check by plentiful supplies, the Associated Press reports.
Benchmark U.S. crude for December delivery was up 65 cents at $97.51 a barrel at midafternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract fell $1.44 to $96.86 on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration said U.S. oil inventories rose by 5.2 million barrels last week, a possible symptom of subdued demand and overproduction. The rise in stockpiles followed a 4 million barrel increase in the previous week. Brent crude was up 31 cents at $108.11 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange in London.
The price of crude has fallen about 5 percent over the past week to its lowest levels since June. But it got a lift Thursday from a survey that showed China's manufacturing rose to a seven month high in October, suggesting continued momentum for the recovery in the world's second-biggest economy.
The preliminary version of HSBC's purchasing managers' index rose to 50.9 from September's 50.2 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 indicate expansion.
Output, new orders and new export orders all increased at a faster rate, according to the survey, which is based on 85-90 percent of responses from 420 factories.
"China's growth recovery is becoming consolidated into the fourth quarter following the bottoming out in the third quarter" said Qu Hongbin an HSBC economist in a statement, according to Reuters. "This momentum is likely to continue in the coming months, creating favorable conditions for speeding up structural reforms."
In the first nine months of the year, the $8.5 trillion economy grew 7.7 percent from a year earlier, putting it on track to achieve Beijing's 2013 target of 7.5 percent, which would be the weakest growth in 23 years.
