Empresas y finanzas
Oil prices rise after signs of U.S. production dip
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose in early Asian trading on Wednesday after signs of a dip in U.S. production, but trading was cautious ahead of an anxiously awaited reading on China's growth pulse.
Front-month Brent crude futures were trading up 42 cents a $58.85 a barrel by 0141 GMT, while U.S. crude had risen 38 cents to $53.67.
In the United States, North Dakota's February oil production fell 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) versus January, although the number of producing wells hit a record high.
This followed a U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report forecasting U.S. shale production would fall by 45,000 bpd to 4.98 million bpd in May, which would be the first monthly decline in four years.
Yet market activity on Wednesday morning in Asia was cautious as traders awaited a wash of Chinese data, including first quarter GDP and industrial output figures, to be published at 0200 GMT.
China's annual economic growth likely slowed to a six-year low of 7 percent in the first quarter as demand at home and abroad faltered, fanning expectations of more policy stimulus to avert a sharper slowdown.
A poor trade performance in March has stirred talk that growth could even fall below the psychologically important 7 percent level, a result that would likely hamper regional stocks and hit commodity currencies such as the Australian dollar.
(Editing by Richard Pullin)