The price of crude oil was moving lower Monday morning amid lingering worries over the demand growth.
The Bank of Japan's quarterly "tankan" index was minus 3, wider than the previous quarter's minus 1. Meanwhile, a survey by the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing said its monthly index of manufacturing activity stood at 49.8 points on a 100-point scale.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for November delivery shed $0.51 to $91.68 a barrel. Last week, oil ended marginally lower amid supply concerns from the Middle East even as the Israeli Prime Minister is expected to raise the level of rhetoric against the Iranian nuclear program when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly later in the day.
This morning, the U.S. dollar continued to level off from its 2-week high versus the euro and ticking lower against sterling. The buck was moving lower versus the yen and the Swiss franc.
In economic news, activity in the euro zone manufacturing sector in September decreased at a slightly slower pace than estimated earlier, final data from a survey by Markit Economics showed. The seasonally adjusted purchasing managers' index for the manufacturing sector came in at a six-month high of 46.1 in September, slightly higher than 46 recorded in the preliminary estimates.
Elsewhere, Germany's manufacturing contracted at a slower pace in September due to slower reductions in output and new orders as well as a stabilization of manufacturing employment levels, survey data from Markit Economics revealed.
Meanwhile, a report from the Eurostat showed that unemployment in the euro zone remained unchanged for the second successive month in August. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 11.4 percent, unchanged from July and June. The latest figure also matched economists' expectations.
Traders will look to the results of the manufacturing survey of the Institute for Supply Management, which are based on data compiled from purchasing and supply executives nationwide, due out at 10 a.m. ET. Economists expect the index to show a reading of 49.7 for September compared to 49.6 in August.
Simultaneously, the Commerce Department's construction spending report to be released, which is expected to show a 0.6 percent increase in August compared to a 0.9 percent decline in July.
Bernanke is scheduled to speak on "Five Questions about the Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy" at the Economic Club of Indiana at 12:30 pm ET.
During this week focus will be on the Labor Department's non-farm payrolls report for September, ADP's private sector employment report and the weekly jobless claims report, apart from the results of the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing and non-manufacturing surveys for September and a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Also, focus will be on the crude oil inventories data from the API, due out Wednesday after the market hours, and the EIA due out the subsequent day.
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