Crude Steady At $96.00 Ahead Of Key Events From The US This Week

As markets await the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting and key employment data due later this week that will provide further signs of the economic health of the U.S. economy, the world’s largest oil consumer, crude is steady around the $96.00 per barrel level.

The Federal Open Market Committee will conclude a two-day meeting on Wednesday, when the government will also release the GDP data for 2012’s fourth quarter, while Friday`s non-farm payrolls might show the jobless rate was unchanged in January at 7.8%.

“If these events show positive results, then it`s possible for West Texas Intermediate crude to touch $100 a barrel on Friday but if the results are worse than expected, the downside is limited to the $94 a barrel range”, said Ken Hasegawa from Newedge Japan.

The strong economic data that points to a global recovery is keeping the oil’s momentum to the upside. Manufacturing in China and the U.S. grew in January at the fastest pace in two years while business confidence in Germany improved for the third month in Jan.

The increasing optimism about the health of the global economy is fueling hopes that demand for oil will rise. Also supporting oil prices to the upside are the tensions in the Middle East and North Africa that trigger worries over supplies from the region.

In Egypt President Mohamed Mursi declared a month-long state of emergency in three cities after dozens of people were killed in four days amid protests designed to overthrow him, while U.N. Security Council envoys flew to Yemen amid tighter security measures.

Moreover, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday that any attack on Syria is an attack on itself. This is one of Tehran`s most assertive defenses of its ally yet, confirming its support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Crude is trading as of this writing around the $96.00 a barrel level compared with the opening at $95.99 and with the highest at $96.15 and the lowest at $95.89, while markets await later today the release of the U.S. durable goods orders and pending home sales.

“The oil market is well supplied… Things are looking up… We have bottomed out, and we are coming out of the economic doldrums that we have suffered from since 2007”, said Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s chief executive, in Davos, Switzerland.

Brent is trading as of this writing around the $113.21 after falling 0.06%; natural gas is trading at $3.377 per 1,000 cubic feet after falling 1.95%; gasoline is trading at $2.869 a gallon after falling 0.22%; heating oil is trading at 3.0577 after rising 0.03%.