Crude slips due to weak economic data

Strong dollar puts further pressure on oil price

Crude-oil futures slipped on Monday, 01 August 2011 at Nymex after reports showed a weaker than expected manufacturing data for last month. The dollar headed up strongly putting further pressure on oil. Crude fell in tandem with equities.

Light sweet crude for September delivery lost $0.81 or 0.9%, to $94.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded as high as $98.61 a barrel on the day.



Last week, oil lost 4.2%. It decreased 0.3% during July.

Late on Sunday, Obama announced a deal between Republicans and Democrats to cut spending and raise the debt limit, easing worries about the likely damage that a failure to reach an agreement would have inflicted. The Congress will still need to pass the relevant legislation into law.

As per latest reports, congressional leaders reached a bipartisan agreement to raise the debt ceiling by at least $2.1 trillion, sufficient to serve the government's needs into 2013. Republican and Democratic leaders now have to sell the deal to skeptical members of their own parties ahead of an 2 August deadline.

US stocks slipped on Monday after the release of the latest ISM Index, which made a surprisingly sharp drop to 50.9 for July from 55.3 for the prior month.

The dollar was in strong shape today. The dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six competing currencies, rose by 0.8%.

Among other energy produvts on Monday, gasoline for September delivery was off less than 1 cent, or 0.1%, at $3.05 a gallon. September heating oil also lost less than a penny, or 0.1%, at $3.10 a gallon.

September natural gas advanced 4 cents, or 1%, to $4.19 per million British thermal units.