The price of crude oil slipped back below $105 Friday morning amid concerns over demand growth after China earlier this week reported downbeat manufacturing activity.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for September delivery, shed $1.04 to $104.45 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled sightly higher as the dollar weakened against a basket of few major currencies and driven by some mixed macroeconomic data out of the U.S. -- tracking mainly the uptick in new orders for manufactured durable goods. In some encouraging economic news, the U.S. Commerce Department said new orders for manufactured durable goods rose much more than expected in June, with orders for transportation equipment showing a substantial increase.
This morning the U.S. dollar continued to level-off from its one-month low versus the euro and sterling, while trading flat against the Swiss franc and the yen.
In economic news, Germany's import prices declined for a sixth consecutive month in June, the latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed. Import prices declined 2.2 percent year-on-year in June, after a 2.9 percent fall in May. The pace of decline, however, was the slowest in four months.
French consumer confidence improved to 82 in July from a revised reading of 79 a month ago, survey data from the statistical office Insee showed. Economists had forecast the index to rise to 79 from June's initially estimated record low level 78.
Euro zone's leading economic index increased for the third successive month in June, adding to hopes that the recession-stricken economy would recover in the second half, data from a survey by the Conference Board showed. The leading economic index moved up 0.5 percent on a monthly basis to 107.5 in June, marking the third successive growth. In May and April, the index rose by 0.4 percent and 0.1 percent respectively.
From the U.S.., the Reuters and the University of Michigan are scheduled to release the final consumer sentiment reading for July at 9:55 a.m. ET. Economists expect the consumer sentiment index to be upwardly revised to 84 from the preliminary reading of 83.9.
