Crude inches up on U.S., European data, Federal Reserve outlook

                 Crude Oil prices rose in choppy trading on Monday on solid U.S. and European factory reports, while dovish comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials also bolstered the commodity albeit in choppy trading that saw the commodity jump in and out of negative territory.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at USD94.67 a barrel during U.S. trading, up 0.06%.

The commodity hit a session low of USD94.09 and a high of USD95.10. The December contract settled down 1.84% at USD94.61 a barrel on Friday.

Oil futures were likely to find support at USD92.73 a barrel, the low from June 24 and resistance at USD98.80 a barrel, the high from Oct. 28.

The euro zone manufacturing purchasing managers’ index ticked up to 51.3 in October from a final reading of 51.1 in September, unchanged from a preliminary estimate and in line with market forecasts, according to London-based Markit Economics.

Germany’s manufacturing PMI, however, rose to 51.7 last month from 51.5 in September as new orders and production levels rose.

Analysts were expecting the figure to remain unchanged at 51.5, and the surprise on the upside gave oil prices a boost.

Meanwhile in the U.S., date released earlier revealed that U.S. factory orders rose 1.7% in October from September, in line with expectations.

Also in the U.S. Federal Reserve officials said earlier the U.S. central bank should not scale back its USD85 billion in monthly bond purchases until economic fundamentals display noted improvements.

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard and Federal Reserve Board Governor Jerome Powell stressed the need to keep stimulus programs such as monthly asset purchases in place though they didn't indicate when monetary authorities should begin tapering and then asset purchases.

Monthly bond purchases aim to spur recovery by driving down interest rates, weakening the dollar in the process.

A weaker greenback makes oil a nicely priced asset on dollar-denominated exchanges.

Meanwhile on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for December delivery were up 0.27% at USD106.20 a barrel, up USD11.53 from its U.S. counterpart. -
Investing.com