Oil falls despite Beige Book report

                  Crude Oil futures traded lower in the early part of Thursday’s Asian despite some decent comments in the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report published Wednesday. 

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for June delivery dropped 0.53% to USD86.50 per barrel in Asian trading Thursday after sliding 2.24% to USD87.04 a barrel on Wednesday in the U.S. 

Oil and other riskier assets such as U.S. stocks plunged after the International Monetary Fund pared its outlook for global economic growth this year. 

On Wednesday, the IMF trimmed its 2013 world economic growth forecast to 3.3%, down from a January projection of 3.5%, while the multilateral lending institution's 2014 growth forecast fell to 4.0% from 4.1%. 

Later Wednesday, the Fed’s Beige Book report, which surveys the central bank’s 12 regional districts, indicated those regions have seen modest economic improvement since late February. 

"Labor market conditions remained unchanged or improved slightly, and reports of hiring were more widespread in the manufacturing, residential construction, information technology and professional services sectors," said the Fed in the report. 

Retail spending increased in most districts while automotive and housing sales remain bright spots for the U.S. economy, the world’s largest. The U.S. is also the world’s largest oil-consuming nation. 

Elsewhere, Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, said it closed a major pipeline in the oil-rich Niger Delta of Nigeria to fix areas where rebels are stealing oil. Shell closed the Nembe Creek Trunkline, leading to lost production of 150,000 barrels per day until the situation is fixed. 

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil-producing nation and a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. 

Meanwhile, Brent crude for June delivery fell 0.33% to USD97.21 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.
Courtesy : Investing.com