Energy Information Administration will report inventory data on Thursday By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures fell below $77 a barrel on Thursday, as a rise in weekly jobless claims and expectations of an increase in U.S. crude inventories weighed on sentiment. Crude oil for March delivery dropped 50 cents to $76.83 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. The contract earlier fell to an intraday low of $76.32. Government data on supplies could push oil prices lower, "as oil inventories remain high and crude-oil demand recovery is far from convincing," said analysts at Sucden Financial Research. The Energy Information Administration will report inventory data on Thursday morning. The release was delayed by a day because of Presidents Day. Analysts polled by Platts expect a 1.65-million-barrel build in crude supplies for the week ended Feb. 12. They also project an increase of 1.5 million barrels in gasoline stocks and a decline of 1.6 million barrels in distillate supplies. The American Petroleum Institute late Wednesday reported that crude supplies declined by 63,000 barrels last week. However, gasoline stocks rose by 1.4 million barrels and distillate stocks increased by 1.28 million barrels, the API also said. Also weighing on oil prices Thursday was data showing that the number of people filing initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose by 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 473,000 last week. Separately, U.S. wholesale prices rose a seasonally adjusted 1.4% in January, the Labor Department estimated.

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