Crude-oil futures are mixed in Asia Monday, even as markets are closely monitoring central banks in Europe and the U.S. with expectations of further economic stimulus measures to boost growth.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in September traded at $90.33 a barrel at 0659 GMT, up $0.20 in the Globex electronic session. September Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.13 to $106.34 a barrel.
Oil prices settled higher for the fourth consecutive session Friday after key European political leaders made comments in support of the euro indicating possible further action to tackle the euro zone's debt crisis.
Market participants are looking to key central bank meetings later this week for further cues--the Bank of England and the European Central Bank meet Thursday, while the U.S. Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Noteworthy is ECB president Draghi's meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary [Timothy] Geithner today in Frankfurt, where hints of coordinated [action] or agreement on central bank action will be key to supporting market sentiment," Singapore-based OCBC Bank said in a note.
Other key data releases this week include the euro zone's July business and economic confidence indicators, U.S. jobless claims and non-farm payrolls data.
"Without a supply disruption, a large cut from OPEC or a material change in the macro, we expect crude to trade in a range," Morgan Stanley said in a recent note.
"To reflect the strength exhibited by crude year-to-date, we are marking to market our average Brent price forecast to $110/bbl [from $105/bbl], implying crude trades around current levels into year-end," the bank said.
Over the weekend, Enbridge Inc. (ENB) said in a release that a spill on its Line 14 released an estimated 1,200 barrels of oil near Grand Marsh, Wisconsin, but the spill had been contained.
Line 14 carries nearly a fifth of total crude imports into the region, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The spill is not significant on the supply/demand equation, although it has led to the shutdown of the 318,000-barrel-a-day line 14, the Schork Group said in a note. It said "the supply disruption should lead to a slight upward canter in the short term, while policy concerns should push oil higher in the long term."
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for August--the benchmark gasoline contract--rose 240 points to $2.9118 a gallon, while August heating oil traded at $2.8813, 82 points lower.
ICE gasoil for August changed hands at $912.75 a metric ton, up $2.00 from Friday's settlement.
