Oil Stabilizes Near $106; Pump Prices Fall

The price of oil held steady around $106 a barrel Monday, while pump prices fell to their lowest level in a month.

Benchmark oil for September delivery gained 14 cents to close at $106.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Analysts saw some carry-over from last week’s positive Chinese economic data. Oil jumped $2.57, or 2.5 percent, on Friday on strong industrial production data from China.

Meanwhile, the nationwide average price for a gallon of gasoline dropped to $3.55 a gallon, the lowest price since July 11. That’s 14 cents cheaper than a year ago at this time.

Natural gas futures had the biggest one-day gain since mid-July. Natural gas rose 8 cents to $3.31 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Brent crude, traded on the ICE Futures exchange in London, rose 87 cents to $107.74 a barrel.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

• Heating oil rose 3 cents to $3.02 a gallon.
• Wholesale gasoline was flat at $2.90 a gallon.