Crude slips a little further

Prices pressured by inflation data out of China Crude oil prices ended lower on Friday, 11 January 2013 at Nymex. Oil futures settled lower on Friday, pressured as inflation data out of China that came in higher than expected and as investors banked some profits after a solid performance the prior day. Oil prices still saw a gain for the week, while natural-gas futures rallied in the wake of recent data showing a hefty drop in U.S. inventories. Light and sweet crude oil for February delivery lost 26 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $93.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday. Prices finished the week 0.5% higher. Among economic data expected for the day at Wall Street, the trade deficit widened to $48.7 billion during November after a downwardly revised prior month deficit of $42.1 billion. Market had expected that the deficit would come in at $41.8 billion. Export prices, excluding agriculture, decreased by 0.2% in December after they had decreased by 0.7% during the prior month. Excluding oil, import prices decreased by 0.1%, which follows the 0.2% decrease experienced in the prior month. The December Treasury Budget showed a deficit of $260 million, which was narrower than the deficit of $1.0 billion expected. The report has mattered little to market participants as equity indices did not respond to the news. But on Friday, data showed that China's consumer price index climbed 2.5% in December from a month earlier, accelerating from a 2% increase in November. The dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, fell by 0.3% on Friday. Among energy products on Friday, gasoline for February delivery slid 5 cents, or 1.9%, to end at $2.74 a gallon, down 0.9% for the week, while February heating oil gave up nearly 5 cents, or 1.5%, to $3.01 a gallon, losing 0.3% from a week ago. Natural gas bucked the energy downtrend, with February natural gas rallying 13 cents, or 4.2%, to finish at $3.33 per million British thermal units. Prices erased their losses for the week to score a 1.2% gain. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday reported a larger-than-expected 201 billion cubic foot draw in last week's natural-gas supplies.