NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures fell Wednesday for a third straight session, after a report showed the U.S. private sector recorded a bigger-than-expected jobs loss in August and as U.S. stocks extended their declines to a fourth session.
Companies in the U.S. private sector shed 298,000 jobs last month, according to the ADP employment report, more than the consensus of 250,000.
Helping limit crude's losses, industry group American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday that U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 3.2 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 28. Analysts surveyed by Platts expected a decline of 1.9 million barrels.
Crude for October delivery was last down 80 cents, or 1.2%, at $67.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had slumped 6.4% in the previous two sessions to reach the lowest level in two weeks.
"Bulls could find some temporary consolation given the better-than-expected API," said Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global. However, "given that the selling has been particularly sharp over the last two days, we suspect the current weakness will not be that easy to shake off."
The Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release a more closely watched petroleum report Wednesday morning.
Analysts also expected a drop of 1.4 million barrels in gasoline inventories and a decline of 600,000 in distillate stockpiles, which include heating oil and diesel.
The EIA reported last week that U.S. crude inventories rose in the week ended Aug. 21, on a jump in imports. Meanwhile, petroleum demand remained lower in comparison with where it stood a year ago. See last week's story.
Oil is "still overvalued; fundamentals still bearish," said Darin Newsom, senior analyst at Telvent/DTN, a provider of market analysis. "Last week's move to $75 seemed a bit overdone."
"There wasn't any reason for the market to move to a new high," said Newsom.
Crude hit $75 a barrel last week for the first time in 10 months.
Also in energy trading, October reformulated gasoline fell 0.3% to $1.7774 a gallon and October heating oil dropped 0.4% to $1.7532 a gallon.
October natural-gas skidded 2.1 cents, or 0.7%, to $2.801 per million British thermal units.
The United States Oil Fund (USO 34.86, -0.41, -1.16%) fell 0.6% and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG 10.03, -0.24, -2.34%) slid 0.7%.
