| GEO Business | Oil mixed in Asian Trade | Updated at: 1211 PST, Wednesday, August 11, 2010
 TOKYO: Crude-oil futures fell below $80 a barrel in Asia Wednesday, after a brief recovery above the support level--spurred by a moderate growth in China's consumer price index and healthy gains in oil product output--ran out of steam.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in September traded at $79.66 a barrel at 0640 GMT, down 59 cents in the Globex electronic session. September Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell 70 cents to $78.90 a barrel.
Crude oil fell in early trading hours in light profit-taking as the euro weakened against the dollar. Losses were briefly pared after the release of relatively positive data from China including its July CPI and oil-product output.
But prices retreated below $80 a barrel again in a spate of long liquidation as the euro continued to weaken against the greenback.
Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expect an EIA report due at 1430 GMT will show flat gasoline inventories and a 2 million-barrel drop in crude inventories.
The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, reported Tuesday evening that U.S. crude stockpiles declined by 2.2 million barrels last week and gasoline stocks fell by 1.5 million barrels.
Despite the expectation of price-supportive EIA data, market sentiment is weak, given a gloomy outlook for the U.S. economy, and a nearby target is yesterday's low of $79.20 a barrel, analysts said. |  | | | |
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