U.S. crude oil price climbed on Thursday as the dollar weakened on the unexpected rise of U.S. jobless data last week.
The U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday that initial jobless claims increased by 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 412,000 in the week ended April 9. This was far beyond economists' expectation. The four-week moving average of new claims, considered a more reliable indicator because it smoothes out volatile weekly data, rose by 5,500 to 395,750 in the week.
The increasing claims, combined with poor trade data and weaker- than-expected retail sales for March that were released earlier this week, showed that U.S. economic recovery slowed down in the early months of 2011, which sent the dollar to the falling path. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell about 0.4 percent.
Meanwhile, U.S. oil price got a lift from a confirmed fire at a refinery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The shutdown of the refinery caused worries about the gasoline supply in the country, especially against the background that gasoline inventories fell by 7 million barrels to the lowest level since last October.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery gained 1.00 dollars, or 0. 93 percent, to settle at 108.11 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. But in London, Brent crude for May delivery slipped ahead of its expiration and last traded around 122 dollars a barrel.
