An increase in China’s Purchasing Manager Index indicates that the pace of manufacturing in China has risen to an 18-month high. The news is expected to reverse a recent downtrend in oil prices pushed lower on news that crude oil and gasoline stockpiles in the US rose last month, while output from OPEC expanded to its highest in ten months.
“Everything coming out of Asia shows they are developing better than other countries,” said Sintje Diek, an analyst with HSH Nordbank in Hamburg. “Elsewhere, demand is still weak, and it’s going to take a long time to lower the oversupply in crude and product inventories.”
