By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil futures fell Thursday, their prospects hurt by a larger-than-expected increase in weekly jobless claims and an unexpected decline in U.S. durable-goods orders.
Crude for March delivery (CLH11 87.06, -0.27, -0.31%) lost 38 cents, or 0.4%, to $86.99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The number of people applying for jobless benefits spiked by 51,000 to 454,000 last week, the Labor Department reported. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected a rise to 408,000.
The increase, however, was at least partly attributed to early-January storms in the South, which caused a processing backlog, the agency said. Read more about jobless claims.
An unexpected drop in U.S-made durable goods in December also roiled markets. The Commerce Department said orders fell 2.5%, while economists had expected a 1% rise. Read more on durable-goods orders.
Natural-gas futures were lower ahead of the weekly inventories report. Natural gas for February delivery (NGG11 4.40, -0.10, -2.14%) , which expires Thursday, retreated 9 cents, or 2%, to $4.40 per million British thermal units.
The upcoming March contract (NGH11 4.41, -0.09, -2.04%) was off 9 cents to $4.41 per million Btus.
The Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release its storage report at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
Analysts polled by Platts expect the EIA to report a withdrawal of 168 billion to 172 billion cubic feet from gas-storage stocks for the week ended Jan. 21.
