oil futures climbed on thursday looking to end a threesession streak of losses as us data revealed signs of easing inflation prompting a pullback in the dollar and raising the potential for the federal reserve to scale back the size of its interestrate hikes prices for oil however remain sharply lower for the week on concerns about chinese demand and rising crude inventories oil prices shook off china negativity after the cpi cooled phil flynn senior market analyst at the price futures group told market watch data thursday showed the us cost of living rose by a smallerthanexpected 04 in october the yearly inflation rate fell to 77 from 82 marking the lowest level since january after the cpi came in lower than expected some of the headwinds for oil such as a stronger dollar and fears of fed interest rate hikes being more aggressive have eased said flynn at the same time there continues to be uncertainty about whats going to happen with china regarding its covid zero policy he said i think once we see any signs china is going to start to reopen its economy that could dramatically change the dynamic and really push oil prices higher overall however crude prices have suffered this week as an increase in covid19 cases in china dampened hopes for a relaxation of beijings zero covid policy of lockdown restrictions said craig erlam senior market analyst at oanda while the narrative in recent weeks has focused on the potential for chinese covid restrictions to be relaxed which has driven chinese equities higher and lifted oil prices the reality has seen case numbers soaring restrictions reimposed and mass testing undertaken erlam said naturalgas futures meanwhile climbed thursday after the us energy information administration reported that domestic naturalgas supplies rose by 79 billion cubic feet for the week ended nov 4 that was slightly lower than the average analyst forecast for an increase of 82 billion cubic feet according to a survey conducted by sp global commodity insights