Crude futures fall on soft U.S. home sales report

Investing.com - Investing.com - Crude futures fell on Thursday in wake of a soft report on U.S. new homes sales, offsetting otherwise upbeat weekly jobless claims numbers out of the world's largest consumer of oil.

In the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude oil for delivery in September traded down 0.92% at $102.17 a barrel during U.S. trading. New York-traded oil futures hit a session low of $102.08 a barrel and a high of $103.31 a barrel.

The September contract settled up 0.71% at $103.12 a barrel on Wednesday.

Nymex oil futures were likely to find support at $101.19 a barrel, Tuesday's low, and resistance at $103.45 a barrel, Tuesday's high.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported earlier new home sales dropped by 8.1% to 406,000 units last month, far worse than expectations for a 5.3% decline.

The data pointed to an underlying weakness in the housing sector, which stoked concerns that U.S. recovery is not red hot and may demand less fuel and energy than anticipated.

Elsewhere, the U.S. Department of Labor reported earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending July 19 declined by 19,000 to 284,000, down from the previous week's total of 303,000.

Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 5,000 to 308,000 last week, though the home sales numbers as well as reports that European refineries are cutting runs or even idling plants due to an influx of oil products from the U.S. sent investors selling.

Separately, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil futures for September delivery were down 1.00% and trading at US$106.95 a barrel, while the spread between the Brent oil and U.S. crude contracts stood at US$4.78 a barrel.

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