By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures swung between gains and losses early Monday, as U.S. stocks opened lower, undermining sentiment in the energy market.
Light sweet crude for September delivery was last down 10 cents to $67.95 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.
Earlier in the session, the front-month contract had climbed as high as $68.99 a barrel.
"There still remains much uncertainty over the timing and magnitude of any real economic recovery," said Nimit Khamar, analyst at Sucden Financial Research.
"Hence, uncertainty and price swings in oil markets are likely to remain given that the oil markets are generally being dominated by macro expectations rather than nearby oil fundamentals," Khamar wrote in a note to clients.
Oil prices surged 7.1% last week on the New York Mercantile Exchange, mostly pacing gains in U.S. equities. See full story on Friday's crude trading.
On Wall Street, U.S. equities declined, as mixed earnings reports from companies including Aetna (AET 25.39, -1.05, -3.97%) kept a lid on recent gains. The S&P 500 index (SPX 982.14, +2.88, +0.29%) fell 0.2% to 977 points.
Traders are awaiting new-home sales for June due for release later in the session.
In other energy news, Mexico's state oil company Pemex said last week that the country's oil production fell to 2.519 million barrels per day in June, a decline of 11.1% year on year, Reuters reported.
Also on Globex, August reformulated gasoline gained 1 cent to $1.92 a gallon and August heating oil was up 1 cent to $1.79 a gallon.
August natural gas futures fell 10 cents, or 3%, to $3.59 per million British thermal units.
