The price of crude oil was steady above $106 Monday morning as a recent batch of mixed macroeconomic data from the US tempered the expectations of stimulus tapering by the Federal Reserve.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for October delivery, edged up $0.02 to $106.44 a barrel. Last week, oil dipped to a fresh two-week low before recovering marginally after some better-than-expected manufacturing activity data from China improved demand growth outlook for oil and official data showed crude inventories in the U.S. to have declined more than expected last week.
This morning the U.S. dollar was hovering near its one-week high versus the euro, the Swiss franc and sterling, while extending gains against the yen.
In economic news, a leading indicator for euro zone's economic activity increased for a third consecutive month in July, signaling an improving economic outlook, the Conference Board said in a report. The leading economic index increased 1 percent month-on-month to 108.4 in July after a 0.4 percent rise in both June and May.
From the U.S., the Commerce Department will release its durable goods orders report for July at 8:30 am ET. Economists expect new orders to have declined 4 percent month-over-month, while excluding transportation orders may have risen by 0.3 percent.
During this week focus will be on consumer confidence readings for August by the Conference Board and Reuters and the University of Michigan, the National Association of Realtors' pending home sales index for July, the jobless claims report, the results of the ISM-Chicago's manufacturing survey for August and the Commerce Department's personal income and spending report for July.
Also, focus will be on the crude oil inventories data from the API, due out Tuesday after the market hours, and the EIA due out the subsequent day.
