Investing.com - Oil prices tumbled Thursday after a weak set of U.S. economic data that overshadowed growing optimism on a resolution to the U.S.-China trade conflict.
Prices fell by nearly a dollar a barrel after U.S. retail sales and producer price inflation both came out weaker than expected -- sharply so, in the case of retail sales. Initial jobless claims were also higher than expected last week.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures had hit a new high for the year of $54.69 a barrel before the data, but by 09:10 AM ET (14.10 GMT) they had turned around sharply and were at $53.62 a barrel, down 0.5% on the day.
International benchmark Brent followed a similar path, touching $64.81 a barrel before dropping to $63.91 after the data.
Prices had rallied earlier in the day on a Bloomberg report that said U.S. President Donald Trump is considering a 60-day extension of the March 1 deadline, when U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports are scheduled to increase to 25% from 10%.
A trade delegation led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer began high-level talks with Chinese counterparts, led by Vice Premier Liu He, in Beijing on Thursday.
The talks, scheduled to run through Friday, follow three days of deputy-level meetings to work out technical details, including a mechanism for enforcing any trade agreement.
Oil prices found further support amid signs of rising demand from China.
China's crude oil imports in January rose 4.8% from a year earlier to an average of 10.03 million barrels per day (bpd), the third straight month that imports have exceeded the 10 million bpd mark.
The U.S. and China are the world’s two largest oil consuming nations. Economists are worried that the ongoing trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies will drag on global growth and, by extension, erode energy demand.
After ending 2018 in freefall, oil prices have rallied approximately 19.5% to start the year, boosted by efforts by global producers to cut supply.
In December, OPEC and a group of 10 producers outside the cartel, led by Russia, agreed to collectively cut production by a total of 1.2 million bpd during the first six months of 2019.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures climbed 1.6% to $1.489 a gallon, while heating oil added 0.9% to $1.957 a gallon.
Natural gas futures tacked on 1% to $2.602 per million British thermal units, as traders looked ahead to weekly storage data due later in the global day amid expectations for a withdrawal of 79 billion cubic feet.
-- Reuters contributed to this report