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• WTI recovers to near $75.10 in Friday’s early Asian session. 
• The upbeat US Initial Jobless Claims data and falling crude inventories support the WTI price. 
• Chinese demand concerns might cap the upside in the near term. 

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude oil benchmark, is trading around $75.10 on Friday. WTI price edges higher on the back of falling crude inventories and positive US labor data.

US crude inventories fell for a sixth straight week, reflecting positive demand. According to the US. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) weekly report, crude oil stockpiles in the United States for the week ending August 2 dropped by 3.728 million barrels, compared to a fall of 3.436 million barrels in the previous week. The market consensus estimated that stocks would decline by 0.4 million barrels. 

Furthermore, the US Initial Jobless Claims data released on Thursday has eased some fears about the weakness in the US labor market. The US Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending August 3 rose by 233K, compared to the previous week of 250K (revised from 249K), below the consensus of 240K. 

On the other hand, eased fears of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East might cap the upside for the WTI price. Ryan Grabinski, an analyst at Strategas, noted on Wednesday that “Regardless of the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, particularly with Iran and Israel, there has been no meaningful disruption to the flow of crude oil in the region.”

Meanwhile, the sluggish demand in China might drag the price of black gold lower as China is the world's biggest oil importer. Official data showed that Chinese crude imports dropped to 10.01 million barrels per day in July. Analysts forecast a year-on-year import drop in 2024, with expectations that crude imports could fall by 150,000 to 200,000 barrels per day.

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