Crude oil futures fell for the third consecutive session on Wednesday as traders overlooked a decline in weekly crude supplies and instead fretted about ample supplies and recently weak manufacturing data in Europe and the China.

The US Energy Information Administration said domestic crude-oil supplies fell by 2.4m barrels for the week ended March 28th. However many analysts said the draw in supplies is typical in March as refineries close down units for yearly maintenance.

Gasoline supplies fell by 1.6m barrels, less than the 2m barrel decline expected. Distillates, which include heating oil, increased by 600,000 barrels confounding expectations for 900,000 barrels draw, the EIA data showed.

Crude for May delivery fell 12 cents to settle at $99.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Traders also mulled Wednesday's Automatic Data Processing payroll data, which said private-sector employers added 191,000 jobs in March. It also upwardly revised February's data to show 178,000 private-sector hires compared to a previous estimate of 139,000.

Markets will be looking ahead to Friday's widely watched Labor Department's monthly employment report.

Meanwhile European benchmark Brent crude fell 0.8% to $104.79 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, close to a five-month low on jitters about increasing Libyan oil would supplies to a sluggish market.

Among precious metals, gold scored a 0.8% gain on Wednesday, following the previous session's slide as bargain hunters scooped up the yellow metal, which had fallen to a seven week low.

Gold for June delivery climbed $10.80 to settle at $1,290.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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