LONDON: Brent oil touched a new four-year low on Wednesday, briefly sinking below $82 a barrel after weak Chinese and European data, but U.S. crude rose on strong employment figures and a surprise fall in inventories.
Services sector growth in China weakened in October as new business cooled, a private survey showed, coming just days after data revealed sluggish factory growth in the world's second-largest economy.
Euro zone business growth picked up less than expected in October despite much deeper price cutting and was only marginally higher than September's 10-month low, according to business surveys.
Brent crude for December fell 35 cents to $82.47 a barrel by 1450 GMT, having earlier reached the day's low of $81.63, its weakest since October 2010.
"Supply is higher and demand expectations are being cut almost every day," said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro in Amsterdam.
U.S. crude futures rose 35 cents to $77.54 a barrel, squeezing the U.S. benchmark's discount to Brent below $5.
The U.S. private sector created 230,000 jobs in October, more than the 220,000 forecast by economists, according to data provided by a payrolls processor.
"The jobs data is driving the U.S. crude price up even as Brent falls," said Michael Hewson, chief analyst at CMC Markets in London.
U.S. crude took further support from inventory data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute, which showed that domestic stocks fell by 639,000 barrels to 374.9 million in the week to Oct. 31.
Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted that stocks would grow by 2.2 million barrels.
The market is now awaiting weekly inventory data from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) later in the day for more clues on demand in the world's top oil consumer.
Global supply continued to climb as Brazil's oil output reached a record 2.358 million barrels per day in September, up nearly 13 percent from a year earlier, national oil regulator ANP said.
Consistent supply from Libya and Iraq, where many expected production to be disrupted by conflict, has added to the downward pressure on prices.
The dollar index hit a new 4-1/2-year high on Wednesday, weighing on oil and driving gold prices to their lowest since April 2010.
Oil and other commodities priced in dollars become more expensive to holders of other currencies when the U.S. unit rises, denting demand.
Oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic lost more than 2 percent on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia cut export prices to the United States, threatening to deepen a global supply glut that has driven crude prices down 30 percent since June.
Analysts at Commerzbank said in a note on Wednesday, "Brent could well be putting the $80 mark to the test before long."
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi is making his first visits in years to fellow exporters Venezuela and Mexico, although tumbling oil prices are not the stated purpose of the trip, according to officials and sources.
Still, the travel plans come at a pivotal moment for Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which meets later in November to discuss how to respond to the rout in global oil prices.
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