Oil Ends Awful May On A Down Note

Amid lingering doubts about the health of the Euro Zone and a spate of troubling U.S. economic, oil futures added one more down day for good measure to end what was a terrible month of May. NYMEX-traded crude for May delivery slid $1.29, or 1.5%, to $86.53 per barrel. That's the lowest settlement for West Texas Intermediate since late October. With the month of May mercifully in the books, it is now known that oil futures slid 17% on the month, the worst monthly performance for U.S.-traded crude since December 2008. Surprisingly, the U.S. dollar was only slightly stronger today as the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (NYSE: UUP) added just a penny. Still, UUP closed the month with a gain of 5.3%. While Europe remains front and center on the minds of many traders, it was U.S. economic data points that presented major problems for oil bulls today.

In economic news, the ADP private payroll survey showed non-government employers added 133,000 new jobs last month, below the 148,000 new jobs economists expected. The Commerce Department's latest reading of U.S. first-quarter GDP came in at 1.9%, below the 2.2% increase seen in last month's reading.

The Institute for Supply Management's Chicago-area business index dropped to 52.7 from 56.2 in April. That's the lowest reading since September 2009. First-time jobless claims rose to 383,000 last week from 373,000 in the previous week. Economists expected a reading of 370,000 new claims. The less volatile four-week moving average increased to 374,500 from 370,750. Ahead of Friday's non-farm payroll report, today's jobs data was not a good sign. The May jobs number is expected to show the addition of 150,000 new jobs, but it appears it's reasonable a miss of that number.

In the face of weak economic data and falling commodities and equity prices, oil stocks were, at best, mixed today. Chevron (NYSE: CVX) closed slightly higher on strong volume, but rival Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) slid 1.5% on volume that was roughly 2.5% times the daily average. Shares of Exxon, performed worse than the broader market in May, sliding 8.3%.

Shares of Petrobras (NYSE: PBR), Brazil's state-run oil giant, gained 2.25% on some bullish pundit companies, but talk about a bad month, Petrobras plunged almost 20% in May. Anadarko Petroluem (NYSE: APC) lost another 2% and appears destined to touch a new 52-week low sooner than later. Speaking of new 52-week lows, ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is trying to fight off just that scenario, but even with today's gain, it would take just one or two bad days to send the largest U.S. independent oil company to a new 52-week low.