By Ben Sharples - Apr 2, 2012 5:48 AM GMT+0700
Oil advanced for a second day in New York as investors bet that fuel demand may increase on signs of a strengthening Chinese economy, the world’s second-biggest crude-consuming nation.
Futures rose as much as 0.5 percent after a Purchasing Managers’ Index climbed to a one-year high of 53.1 in March, China’s logistics federation and the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. Payrolls in the U.S., the world’s biggest crude user, probably increased in March for a fourth consecutive month, economists said before a report this week. Oil capped a second quarterly gain on March 30 after President Barack Obama declared world supplies were sufficient to proceed with new sanctions against Iran.
Oil for May delivery gained as much as 54 cents to $103.56 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $103.46 at 8:35 a.m. Sydney time. Prices climbed 4.2 percent in the three months to March 30 for a second quarterly gain.
Brent oil for May settlement increased 51 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $123.39 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract’s premium to New York-traded West Texas Intermediate was at $19.92 from $19.86 on March 30.
U.S. employment rose by 205,000 after climbing by 227,000 in February, according to the median projection of 54 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The Labor Department report is due April 6.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net
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