Crude prices mixed in Asian trade

In this file photo taken with a long exposure, a pumping unit sucks oil from the ground near Greensburg, Kan. AP FLE PHOTO

SINGAPORE – Oil prices were mixed in Asia on Monday with downward pressure coming from a slip in US industrial output, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March eased 14 cents to $95.72 a barrel while Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April added 26 cents to $117.92.

Trading was restrained “after an unexpected dip in US industrial production spurred concerns about lagging economic activity”, Phillip Futures said in a report.

Official data Friday showed industrial production in the United States – the world’s largest economy and oil consumer— contracting 0.1 percent in January, with manufacturing output falling 0.4 percent.

“Economists had been expecting a modest increase in industrial output in January,” Phillip Futures said.