Investing.com - Oil futures rose, but only modestly, in the early part of Thursday's Asian session as crude showed slight strength despite some concerning U.S. data points out Wednesday.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for July delivery inched up 0.02% to USD93.76 per barrel in Asian trading Thursday after settling up 0.44% at USD93.72 a barrel on Wednesday.
Crude was helped higher Wednesday by some supportive inventories data. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 6.3 million barrels in the week ended May 31, shooting way past expectations for a decline of 356,000 barrels.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 391.3 million barrels as of last week. The report also showed that total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 366,000 barrels, compared to expectations for an increase of 522,000 barrels.
In U.S. economic news, the ADP private payroll survey showed non-government U.S. employers added 135,000 new jobs last month. Economists expected the addition of 167,000 non-government jobs. The U.S. Labor Department delivers the May jobs number on Friday.
The Institute for Supply Management said its May services index rose to 53.7% from 53.1% in April. Economists expected a May reading of 54%. Readings above 50% indicate expansion.
Those tepid numbers did not appear to give traders too much ahead of Friday's jobs report for May out of the U.S., which is the world's largest oil consumer.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said Canada could be pumping 6.7 million barrels of oil per day by 2030, well above the 6.2 million barrels per day the group forecast last year.
Elsewhere, Brent futures for July delivery rose 0.08% to USD102.94 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
