Oil prices near $80 per barrel

26/10/2009

Oil prices traded at close to $80 per barrel this Monday (October 26th), as traders looked for evidence to justify last week's increase to the highest prices of 2009.

Benchmark US crude oil for December delivery fell to $80.01 by late afternoon Singapore time on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a 49 cents decrease, reports the Associated Press.

The newswire reports that the contract had settled at $80.50 on Friday, following a fall in prices of 69 cents per barrel.

Economic data may provide traders with some clues about the future of the market and seems likely to be closely analysed.

Reports regarding consumer confidence, durable goods orders and third-quarter gross domestic product information are due this week.

Last week a Barclays Capital report stated that the beginning of economic recovery had laid the groundwork and that traders should be looking for oil prices to push on to higher price ranges.