By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures inched lower Monday, ahead of a fresh reading on the U.S. housing market.
Prices rallied nearly 4% last week and have posted weekly gains in five of the last eight weeks.
Crude for September delivery lost 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $78.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Other energy futures tracked oil lower, with natural gas for August delivery, the thinly traded front-month contract, losing 7 cents, or 1.5%, to $4.50 per million British thermal units.
"This week will be a real test of the oil complex's resilience," analysts at Cameron Hanover said in a note early Monday. "A failure to break and settle above $80 early this week would be seen by many as a technical failure to break to new highs."
Oil has traded within a range banded by $70 to $80 a barrel, and a close at $80 a barrel is seen by many as a condition to trend higher.
Meanwhile, reformulated gasoline for August delivery lost 2 cents, or 0.8%, to $2.10 a gallon.
The dollar index (DXY 82.27, -0.19, -0.24%) , with tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, declined 0.2% to 82.30.
Traders awaited for new-home sales for June at 10 a.m. Eastern.
