Crude mixed in Asia

In this Aug. 16, 2012, file photo, gas prices are advertised at a Sunoco gas station and market in Lapeer, Michigan. AP

Singapore – Crude was mixed in Asia Monday as traders balanced US stimulus hopes with disappointing Chinese industrial output numbers, analysts said

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, shed 14 cents to $96.28 a barrel while Brent North Sea crude for October delivery gained seven cents to $114.32.

Traders were mulling hopes for fresh US stimulus after a disappointing jobs report as well as data showing Chinese industrial output growth weakening to its slowest pace in more than three years, IG Markets said in a report.

“In Asia today, markets could show some volatility with a mixed bag of US news and reaction along with China’s weak economic data,” the report stated.

US jobs data released Friday showed the economy of the world’s largest oil consumer adding a meagre 96,000 jobs in August as the official number of jobless fell by a quarter of a million people to 12.5 million.

But about 368,000 people gave up searching for jobs and left the labour force, leading to a substantial net rise in the total number of working-age Americans out of work.

In China, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed industrial production increasing by 8.9 percent year-on-year last month, the lowest figure since a similar rise of 8.9 percent in the depths of the global economic crisis in May 2009.

China’s economy has seen a marked easing over the past year, expanding 7.6 percent in the second quarter of 2012, the worst performance in three years and the sixth straight quarter of easing.