Crude Oil trades lower as U.S. shutdown stretches another day

          Crude Oil futures traded lower during Friday’s Asian session amid a batch of disappointing economic data and an ongoing government shutdown that threatens to imperil the world’s largest economy. 

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for November delivery fell 0.15% to USD103.15 per barrel in Asian trading Friday. The November contract settled lower by 0.76% at USD103.31 per barrel on Thursday. 

The U.S. government shutdown has carried on for the third day in a row, as House Republicans are still unable to strike a deal on spending cuts with the Senate Democrats. A shooting near Capitol Hill, which was later on considered an isolated incident, also kept risk-taking in check. 

In U.S. economic news out Thursday, the ISM non-manfacturing PMI showed a sharper than expected decline from 58.6 to 54.4, lower than the consensus at 57.4. 

Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending Sept. 28 rose by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 308,000, better than analysts' calls for jobless claims to rise by 6,000 to 313,000 last week. 

Due to the government shutdown, it is widely expected that the U.S. non-farm payroll data for September will not be released Friday as was previously scheduled. 

President Barack Obama met with Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress on Wednesday to discuss ways out of the impasse, although a solution still seemed unlikely. 

Elsewhere, Brent crude futures for November delivery rose 0.10% to USD108.76 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange. - investing.com