Crude oil futures remained lower on Monday as investors remained cautious in reaction to Iran’s threat to disturb the oil shipping traffic.

Bill O’ Neill from Logic Advisors in New Jersey commented, “Oil lacked new impetus to run higher and cautious traders may be backing off after an overdone reaction to the Iranian Hormuz threats, oil had a very nice run over the last couple of weeks and although geopolitical concerns are likely to dominate trade reaction, Iran’s threat to disrupt oil shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz has been tempered.”

Crude oil futures contract for February delivery fell 0.3 percent or $0.25 to settle at $101.31 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Further to add the pressure on crude oil prices, Germany’s industrial output data came less than expected at 0.6 percent of November. On the other hand German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy supported the goal of foster growth and higher employment rate in their latest comments.

Among other commodities, gasoline futures for February delivery gained 0.3 percent to $2.76 per gallon while heating oil futures for the same month delivery advanced less than 0.1 percent to $3.07 per gallon on NYMEX.

Natural gas futures contract for February remained under pressure and fell 1.7 percent or $0.51 to $3.011 per million British thermal units.