Oil slightly lower ahead of OPEC meeting

Investing.com - Oil futures traded slightly lower in the early part of Friday's Asian session ahead of a meeting by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna later Friday. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for July delivery fell 0.14% to USD93.48 per barrel in Asian trading Friday after settling up 0.20% at USD93.32 a barrel on Thursday in the U.S. On Thursday, U.S. Energy Information Administration reported earlier that U.S. crude oil Inventories rose by 3 million barrels last week, up from a decline of 338,000 in the week before.Analysts were expecting oil stockpiles to fall by 350,000, and the size of the increase left traders interpreting that demand is set to increase more than once expected.Gasoline inventories, meanwhile, fell by 1.514 million barrels from a gain of 3.015 million barrels in the preceding week, which caught markets off guard. In In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department said U.S. first-quarter GDP grew 2.4%, missing economists' expectations of 2.5% growth. Government spending plunged 4.9%, well ahead of the 4.1% estimate. Initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 10,000 to 354,000 last week, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Economists expected a reading of 340,000 claims. The less volatile four-week moving average rose by 6,750 to 347,250. The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index for April inched up 0.3% to 106. That is good for the highest reading since April 2010. Economists expected an increase of 1.1%. The U.S. is the world's largest oil consumer. Ahead of Friday's OPEC meeting, member state is looking to boost output to 400,000 barrels per day, which could put a wrinkle in the cartel's plans to reduce supply if prices plunge. Elsewhere, Brent for July delivery fell 0.13% to USD102.07 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.
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