Oil prices climb on encouraging China data

Oil prices rebounded strongly on Friday as a string of Chinese economic data came in better than expected. China's National Bureau of Statistics said Friday the country' s industrial output growth picked up in July, rising 9.7 percent year on year, while its consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, stayed flat at 2.7 percent in July from last year. On Thursday, China released a set of surprisingly good trade data in July. Export and import growth jumped to 5.1 percent and 10.9 percent in July, beating market expectation of 2.0 percent and 1.0 percent respectively. On the U.S. economic front, wholesale inventories dropped 0.2 percent in June, while wholesale sales in June rose 0.4 percent, the U.S. Commerce Department reported on Friday. Oil prices retreated early this week, as traders were worried about U.S. Fed tapering. With hawkish remarks from Fed officials, traders believed the central bank would start trimming its monetary stimulus later this year. However, strong economic data of China, the world second largest economy after the United States, outweighed Fed tapering concerns and boosted markets confidence, analyst said. Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose 2.57 U.S. dollars, to settle at 105.97 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent for September delivery went up 1.54 dollars, to close at 108.22 dollars a barrel.