By Alex Lawler
LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) – Oil fell for the third day in a row on Thursday as fears over the economic impact of rising interest rates offset an unexpected drop in U.S. crude inventories and hopes over Chinese demand.
* Comments this week from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the likelihood that more than expected rate hikes will be needed in response to the recent strength in data continued to weigh on oil and other risky assets in because of the possible impact on economic growth and demand.
* As of 09:02 GMT, Brent was down 34 cents, or 0.4%, at $82.32 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down 11 cents at $76.55. Both benchmarks lost between 4% and 5% in the previous two days.
* “Fear of a recession is increasing dramatically,” said Tamas Varga of brokerage PVM.
* Oil prices posted their biggest daily decline since early January on Tuesday following Powell’s comments.
* “Oil prices remain influenced by the aggressive tone of Powell,” said Suvro Sarkar, senior energy analyst at DBS Bank, pointing to the possibility of a rate hike of 50 basis points instead of 25 basis points basic.
* Wednesday’s official figures for U.S. crude inventories, which fell 1.7 million barrels last week, ended a 10-week streak of gains. Reuters expectations pointed to an increase of 400,000 barrels.
* Crude Oil was also helped by expectations of an increase in Chinese demand. While Chinese crude imports in the first two months of 2023 fell 1.3% year-on-year, analysts pointed to the acceleration in imports in February as a sign that fuel demand is picking up after Beijing lifted controls by COVID-19.
(Reporting by Alex Lawler in London, Stephanie Kelly and Emily Chow in Singapore; Spanish edition by Carlos Serrano)