Crude settles below $100

Natural gas gains on cold weather

Crude oil futures settled below $100 a barrel on Monday, 30 December 2013 at Nymex but remained near a two-month high after data at the end of last week showed a further drop in U.S. crude supplies.

February crude oil fell $1.03, or 1%, to settle at $99.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Trading is likely to remain thin with many investors still on holiday. Monday's only piece of major economic data did little to shift prices.

Today's economic data at Wall Street was limited to November Pending Home Sales, which ticked up 0.2% while the consensus expected an increase of 1.5%.

Natural gas posted gains on colder weather. At the end of pit trading, February natural gas rose 7 cents to $4.43/MMBtu.

Among other energy products, January gasoline slipped nearly 3 cents, or 1%, to settle at just under $2.79 a gallon.