Traders look for clues in assessing energy demand By MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Oil prices meandered below $74 a barrel Monday as traders awaited gauges of the U.S. economy and energy-supply data in assessing demand. Wavering between mild gains and losses, benchmark crude for October delivery rose 5 cents to $73.71 a barrel in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 91 cents to end at $73.66 on Friday. Weekly inventory data and the government’s count of new claims for jobless benefits come later in the week. Crude finished last week lower by 3.6% at $73.66, its biggest one-week drop in five weeks. The commodity had opened the week on an upbeat note, climbing to $78 a barrel on news that Enbridge Inc. (ENB 50.16, -0.34, -0.67%) had shut a line that carries nearly a third of Canadian crude to the U.S. But the flow resumed by the end of the week. “It was downhill for crude for the remainder of the week as concerns about the economy pushed crude oil back towards the $73 mark,” noted Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners.

Source