Oil prices fell Monday as investors shifted their focus from unrest in Egypt to the U.S. economy.
West Texas Intermediate crude, or WTI, for March delivery fell $1.55 to settle at $87.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, brent crude lost 58 cents to settle at $99.25 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Violent anti-government demonstrations in Egypt settled down after government officials negotiated Sunday with opposition leaders, although many protesters still called for President Hosni Mubarak to step down. The lull eased fears of potential interruptions to crude supplies from the region.
Egypt controls the Suez Canal and a nearby pipeline that together carry about 2 million barrels of oil a day from the Middle East to customers in Europe and America. That compares with about 87 million barrels consumed worldwide every day.
“The market seems to be developing a thick skin about the events in the Middle East in particular,” Tradition Energy analyst Gene McGillian said.
