Crude-oil futures backtracked from an early rebound in Asian trading hours Thursday after gains were capped due to weaker-than-expected industrial output data from China. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $98.19 a barrel at 0550 GMT, up $0.20 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.29 to $108.31 a barrel. Industrial production in China undershot expectations to increase 8.6% year-over-year in the January-February period, in yet another indication of slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy. The increase was below the median 9.5% gain forecast by 13 economists in a Wall Street Journal survey. “Some of the numbers coming in below forecast will add to the bearish sentiment in the market and put pressure on crude-oil prices,” said Tan Chee Tat, analyst at Phillip Futures. “The underperforming [data] releases […]