By Polya Lesova & Moming Zhou, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures fell on Thursday, moving lower for the first time in four days, as a rebound in the U.S. dollar and a report that showed higher-than-expected jobless claims dampened the outlook for energy demand. Also weighing on oil prices, U.S. stocks broadly moved lower and an index of leading economic indicators rose less than expected. In other energy news, natural gas fell after government data showed another buildup in U.S. inventories. Crude oil for December delivery, which expires Friday, lost $1.90, or 2.4%, to $77.69 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude has mostly traded within a fairly tight range of between $75 to $80 a barrel this month. The number of people filing initial claims for state unemployment benefits stood at a seasonally adjusted 505,000 in the week ended Nov. 14, the Labor Department reported. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected initial claims to drop to 500,000. "U.S. energy demand remains weak, inventories are still high, and most disturbingly, this week's U.S. macro numbers seem to be pointing to a decelerating rate of recovery," said Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global. "Barring another sharp sell-off in the dollar, we do not see crude oil breaking out of its relatively tight trading range anytime soon." The leading indicators rose 0.3% in October after a 1% gain in September, private research group Conference Board said. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected the leading index to rise 0.4%. In currencies, the dollar rebounded against its major rivals Thursday. The dollar index (DXY 75.44, +0.26, +0.34%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, gained 0.4% to 75.511. The Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday crude inventories fell 900,000 barrels in the week ended Nov. 13. James Williams, an economist at energy research firm WTRG Economics, called the drop in crude inventories "very modest given the impact of Ida on production and delayed shipping." The EIA reported Thursday U.S. natural gas inventories rose 20 billion cubic feet in the week ended Nov. 13. That's largely in line with analysts' expectations. At 3,833 billion cubic feet, stocks were 347 billion cubic feet higher than last year at this time and 419 billion cubic feet above the five-year average. Current prices make it favorable for operators to inject gas now for sale during the upcoming heating season, said Tim Evans, analyst at Citi Futures Perspective, in a statement. "Given that the cash market has been trading at a substantial discount to futures, we'd guess the build would be significantly greater if storage capacity was not nearly full," Evans said. Natural gas for December delivery fell 1% to $4.211 per million British thermal units. In other energy trading, December gasoline lost 1.7% to $1.977 a gallon, and December heating oil was down 2.3% at $2.0026 a gallon. China's petroleum demand rose 10.2% in October from a year ago, Platts said on Thursday citing its analysis of official data. Chinese oil demand reached an estimated 33.88 million metric tons last month, or 8 million barrels, a day, compared with 30.75 million metric tons in October 2008, according to Platts. Oil demand in China, the world's second largest oil consumer had climbed by 12.6% in September from a year earlier.

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