By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Crude oil prices slipped a
fraction in early trading on Thursday as shrinking Japanese
machinery orders fuelled concerns that weak levels of investment
could further erode already slow growth in Asia.
Japan's core machinery orders, a highly volatile data series
regarded as an indicator of capital spending in the coming six
to nine months, fell 3.6 percent in July, official data showed
on Thursday.
That was much worse than a 3.7 percent increase expected by
economists, and followed a 7.9 percent month-on-month decline in
June.
In China, Asia's biggest economy, analysts already expect a
further slowdown in economic growth, now at its lowest in a
generation.
Benchmark Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were trading at
$47.52 per barrel at 0130 GMT, just below levels of their last
settlement. U.S. crude futures CLc1 were virtually unchanged
at $44.16 a barrel.
Oil prices have fallen by over 50 percent since June 2014,
when soaring global output began to clash with slowing economies
in Asia, the main growth engine for commodities of the last
years.
The weakening in Asia's economies and commodity demand is
having far-reaching effects.
On Wednesday, Standard & Poor's downgraded Brazil to a
junk-grade credit rating, just seven years after it first won an
investment-grade rating. Brazil, one of the main commodity
exporters to China and a member of the so-called BRICS emerging
economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), was
until recently seen as one of the main drivers of the global
economy.
(Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)