• Brent crude futures were last at $71.42 a barrel
  • Asian shares retreat 0.2 percent
  • Saudi Arabia’s index gains 1.1 percent
  • Dollar remains unchanged, gold drops

Oil prices

Oil prices dropped in early trading on Thursday as higher U.S. production offset a surprise decline in inventories.

Gasoline stocks fell by 1.2 million barrels, less than analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.1 million-barrel drop.

U.S. crude inventories fell by 1.4 million barrels in the week to April 12, compared with analyst expectations for an increase of 1.7 million barrels, Department of Energy (DoE) showed on Wednesday.

Brent crude futures were at $71.42 a barrel at 0235 GMT, down 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close. Brent fell 0.1 percent on Wednesday, after earlier touching its highest since November 8 at $72.27 a barrel.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $63.69 per barrel, down 7 cents, or 0.1 percent, from their previous settlement. WTI closed the last session down 0.5 percent.

“The unexpected drawdown in U.S. commercial crude oil stocks was balanced by lower-than-expected withdrawals in the country’s gasoline and distillate inventories,” Abhishek Kumar, Head of Analytics at Interfax Energy in London, told Reuters.

Global markets

Asian shares dropped on Thursday, tracking a retreat on Wall Street overnight.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.2 percent. Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 edged 0.2 percent lower.

“We’re in this kind of hiatus in the global economy,” Chris Weston, head of research at foreign exchange brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne, told Reuters.

“People are starting to believe that we’re going to see better times in the second quarter and probably into the third quarter as well, and that perhaps the first quarter has been that trough.”

Middle East markets

Saudi Arabia’s index added 1.1 percent on Wednesday Rajhi Bank added 2.3 percent and the kingdom's largest lender National Commercial Bank gained 2.2 percent.

In Dubai, the index was up 0.8 percent as Dubai Islamic Bank gained 1.2 percent.

The Abu Dhabi index was up 0.5 percent with energy firm Dana Gas adding 2.9 percent and market heavyweight First Abu Dhabi Bank increasing 0.6 percent.

Qatar’s index gained 0.5 percent as Industries Qatar was up 1.2 percent while Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding traded 4.5 percent higher.

Egypt's blue-chip index slipped 0.7 percent, weighed down by a 1.1 percent drop in Commercial International Bank and a 2.8 percent fall in El Sewedy Electric.

Kuwait’s premier market index edged 0.1 percent lower, Oman’s index dropped 0.2 percent and Bahrain’s index edged up 0.1 percent.

Currencies

The dollar was mainly unchanged on Thursday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, held steady at 97.033.

Precious metals

Gold prices edged lower on Thursday.

Spot gold was down 0.1 percent at $1,272.33 per ounce. U.S. gold futures dipped 0.2 percent lower to $1,274.50 an ounce.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)


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