Crude moves sideways ahead of Fed meeting, jobs report

Investing.com - U.S. crude oil prices traded sideways to slightly higher in U.S. trading on Monday after investors in energy markets sparred on the sidelines ahead of a Federal Reserve monetary policy announcement due out Wednesday and the always-important monthly jobs report due Friday.Investors were hoping both events will provide insight into the health of the U.S. economy and the fate of monetary stimulus measures currently in place, though uncertainty beforehand allowed for somewhat choppy trading.On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in September traded at USD104.88 a barrel during U.S. morning trade, up 0.17%. The September contract settled down 0.75% at USD104.70 a barrel on Friday.The Federal Reserve will hold a monetary policy meeting this week, and investors hope the U.S. central bank will shed some light as to when it may taper down stimulus measures, which weaken the dollar to spur recovery.A weaker greenback makes oil a nicely priced asset in dollar-denominated exchanges.The commodity also jumped in and out of positive territory as investors prepped for the release of the July jobs report on Friday.Lackluster data out of the housing sector gave oil some room to rise after investors determined the numbers still pointed to recovery.The National Association of Realtors reported earlier that pending home sales in the U.S. fell 0.4% in June, less than an expected 1% decline after a 5.8% rise the previous month. On the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for September delivery were up 0.39% at USD107.59 a barrel, up USD2.71 from its U.S. counterpart.
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