Oil falls to a fresh six-week low Crude oil extended its losses to fall for a fourth consecutive session on Thursday, with the Brent benchmark hitting a fresh six-week low as weak Chinese manufacturing data further sapped investors" enthusiasm for the commodity. ICE November Brent dropped over $1 to $107.10 a barrel before trading at $107.63 in London. The global oil benchmark, which rose over $117 a barrel last week, has fallen almost 8 per cent since the start of the week as traders focused on the expected increased supply on the crude markets. HSBC's flash China's purchasing manager's index, one of the earliest monthly economic indicators, showed that the figure was at a two-month high of 47.8, but below the 50 mark, which points to contraction. Hongbin Qu, chief economist at HSBC in China, said that manufacturing growth was still slowing, but the pace of a slowdown was stabilising. "Manufacturing activities remain lacklustre, thanks to weak new business flows and a longer than expected destocking process," he added. The Chinese data weighed on oil prices which have been sold off over the past few days. Comments by Gulf oil officials that Saudi Arabia was offering extra oil to customers has been a primary driver of the selling, said brokers. "The Saudis remain the key factor in dictating the eventual price of crude," said Mark Thomas, head of European energy at Marex Spectron, the commodities brokers. He added that investors ultimately needed to "listen to and watch carefully Saudi price guidance." Lingering speculation of a release by the US of its strategic petroleum reserve has also weighed on the oil price, while higher-than-expected inventories in the US have also given traders reason to believe that there was ample crude on the physical markets. The next technical support for Brent crude was $106.40, the 100-day moving average, said analysts. While the US announcement of quantitative easing had initially boosted crude oil prices, the effects were wearing off, said oil consultants JBC Energy in Vienna. It said: "The extended losses are hinting more and more that the bullish impact of QE3 had already been priced into the market for several weeks and that the focus is now on weaker global economic growth indicators."