Disappointing US home sales data and jitters about the outlook for energy demand took crude oil futures lower on Friday.

Exiting home sales unexpectedly fell in December to 369,000 for the year, down from 385,000 the month before, which was revised up from 377,000. The results fell short of analyst expectations of 385,000.

Focus also remained on the Seaway Pipeline, a key oil pipeline, which has restricted capacity. There is concern that supplies will swell at the Midwest delivery point for the contract.

Capacity at the Seaway pipeline was increased this month to 400,000 barrels per day from 150,000 barrels, however on Wednesday, Enterprise Products Partners confirmed that it had cut its Seaway pipeline oil deliveries by more than half as a refinery in Texas undergoes maintenance.

Crude oil for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled down 7 cents at $95.88 a barrel. Crude traded at an intra-day low of $95.43 and a high of $96.56 a barrel and over the week March crude fell 16 cents.

On the ICE futures exchange ICE North Sea Brent crude oil closed the session unchanged at $113.28 a barrel.

Among precious metals gold futures also settled lower on Friday, marking its third consecutive day of declines.

Gold for February delivery fell $13.30 to settle at $1,656.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Over the week, bullion was down nearly 2%.



CJ

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