By Myra P. Saefong and Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) ? Oil futures settled higher Thursday, holding above $97 a barrel after U.S. data showed a decline in weekly jobless claims, boosting the outlook for demand, but strength in the U.S. dollar kept a cap on gains.
Natural-gas futures dropped to a six-week low with traders disappointed over the size of last week?s fall in U.S. inventories.
Oil for March delivery /quotes/zigman/2291769 CLH3 +0.02% climbed 30 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $97.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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The contract added to gains after the Labor Department reported that weekly jobless claims dropped by 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 341,000, much more than expected. See: U.S. jobless claims sink 27,000 to 341,000.
?Weekly jobless claims came in much better than expected to lift the general mood,? said Matt Smith, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric in Louisville, Ky., in a note. But ?the mood in Europe is much more downbeat as updated GDP data out of both Germany and France came in worse than expected, highlighting a deepening recession.? See: German, French GDP contract by more than expected.
The March crude contract had hit an intraday low of $96.77 a barrel after data showed euro-zone gross domestic product contracted by 0.6% in the final three months of 2012, versus forecasts for a 0.4% drop.
The euro extended its slide versus the dollar.The euro /quotes/zigman/4867933/sampled EURUSD -0.0444% extended a slide versus the dollar. A stronger dollar can undercut the value of commodities, such as oil, that are priced in the U.S. currency. See: Euro-zone GDP plunge stokes rate-cut expectations .
London-traded April Brent North Sea crude futures /quotes/zigman/2735833 UK:LCOJ3 +0.14% added 12 cents to settle at $118 a barrel, after a 13-cent advance Wednesday.
?Concerns over Middle East remained after the [United Nations] nuclear watchdog said it failed to reach a deal with Iran on investigating its nuclear program,? said Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at GFT Markets, in a note.
But with West Texas Intermediate crude traded on Nymex remaining below $98, ?the near-term outlook remains unclear,? he said. Once the price ?breaks through this barrier, then we could see a move toward $100 a barrel, while a break below $95 would pave the way for a move to the downside.?
Nymex crude-oil prices fell 50 cents on Wednesday after conflicting data on U.S. petroleum supplies and forecasts on global oil-demand growth. See: Oil slips; traders parse through conflicting data.
Elsewhere in the energy complex Thursday, gasoline futures were a standout, rallying by 3%. Data on gasoline supplies released this week showed unexpected declines.
March gasoline /quotes/zigman/2052322 RBH3 +0.45% tacked on 8 cents, for a rise of 2.7% to $3.12 a gallon, the highest level for a front-month contract since late September. March heating oil /quotes/zigman/2202749 HOH3 +0.0093% settled at $3.22 a gallon, up half a cent, or nearly 0.2%.
March natural gas /quotes/zigman/2294272 NGH13 +0.38% fell 14 cents, or 4.3%, to end at $3.16 per million British thermal units, its lowest since Jan. 9. Prices fell further after the EIA on Thursday reported a decline in U.S. inventories that was a bit less than expected.
Supplies fell by 157 billion cubic feet for the week ended Feb. 8, the EIA said. Analysts polled by Platts forecast a decline between 160 billion and 164 billion cubic feet. See: Natural-gas prices fall further after EIA data.
The government report ?suggests a further minor bearish shift in the background supply/demand balance, with modest bearish implications for the reports to follow,? said Tim Evans, an energy futures analyst at Citi Futures, in a note.
/quotes/zigman/2291769
US : U.S.: Nymex
Volume: 1,196
Feb. 14, 2013 7:05p
/quotes/zigman/4867933/sampled US : ICAP Currencies
Volume: 0.0000
Feb. 14, 2013 7:16p
/quotes/zigman/2735833 UK : U.K. ICE Futures Europe
Volume: 181,465
Feb. 14, 2013 10:40p
/quotes/zigman/2052322 US : U.S.: Nymex
Volume: 99.00
Feb. 14, 2013 6:58p
/quotes/zigman/2202749 US : U.S.: Nymex
Volume: 68.00
Feb. 14, 2013 7:05p
/quotes/zigman/2294272 US : U.S.: Nymex
Volume: 180.00
Feb. 14, 2013 7:06p
Myra Saefong is a MarketWatch reporter based in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter @MktwSaefong. Polya Lesova is MarketWatch's New York deputy bureau chief. Follow her on Twitter @PolyaLesova. Michael Kitchen in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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