Crude sags as market shrugs off U.S. solid data, eyes Middle East
Published Feb 01, 2013 01:13PM ET
A suicide bombing at the U.S. embassy in Turkey and an explosion on the headquarters at Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex kept investors on the sidelines digesting possible fallout scenarios.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at USD97.45 a barrel on Friday, down 0.04%, off from a session high of USD98.13 and up from an earlier session low of USD96.55.
Investors sold oil for profits on Friday, taking advantage of several days of gains despite solid data out of the U.S., which saw rather muted reactions in energy markets.
Earlier Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy added a net 157,000 jobs in January, roughly in line with expectations for a gain of 160,000.
December's numbers were revised to 196,000 from 155,000, while November's figures were revised to 247,000 from 161,000.
The headline unemployment rate rose to 7.9% from 7.8% in December.
Elsewhere, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading of its consumer sentiment index improved to 73.8 in January from 71.3 the previous month, beating expectations for a reading of 71.5.
Separately, the Institute of Supply Management said that its manufacturing purchasing managers' index rose to 53.1 last month from 50.2 in December, well above expectations for a rise to 50.6.
Oil prices sagged, however, largely due to profit taking.
Events in Turkey, Mexico and Syria concerned many investors and pushed them to the sidelines.
Elsewhere on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for March delivery were up 1.02% at USD116.72 a barrel, up USD19.27 from its U.S. counterpart.
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Written By: Investing.com
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