Crude slumps on weak U.S. durable goods data, Syria unrest supports

Investing.com - Crude oil futures fell on Monday after data revealed sales of durable goods in the U.S. were soft in July and painted a picture of an economy still battling headwinds as it recovers and will demand less fuel and energy going forward.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in October traded at USD105.97 a barrel during U.S. trading, down 0.42%.

The October contract settled up 1.32% at USD106.42 a barrel on Friday.

The commodity hit a session low of USD105.58 and a high of USD107.31.

The Commerce Department reported earlier that U.S. durable goods orders dropped 7.3% in July, outpacing expectations for a 4.0% decline. The July figure marked the largest decline since August 2012.

Core durable goods orders, which are stripped of volatile transportation items, fell 0.6% last month, defying expectations for a 0.5% increase.

On Friday, the Commerce Department reported that new home sales in the U.S. dropped 13.4% to 394,000 units in July, far worse than market expectations for a 1.4% decline.

The numbers softened oil prices by fanning concerns that the U.S. economy has yet to enter a stage of more sustained recovery and faces potholes until then.

A pickup in exports from Libya also weakened crude prices, though concerns that violence in Syria may morph into an international crisis and threaten global supply curbed losses.

Also supporting prices somewhat was uncertainty over when the Federal Reserve will begin to taper the pace of its monthly USD85 billion bond-buying program, which boosts commodities prices as a side effect.

Weak U.S. indicators often sway market participants to bet that tapering will begin later rather than sooner.

On the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for October delivery were down 0.11% at USD110.92 a barrel, up USD4.95 from its U.S. counterpart.