Oil slips to below $67

Oil slipped 1 percent to below $67 a barrel on Monday as investors became more cautious about the pace of global economic recovery and a potential revival in energy demand. US equities fell broadly, pressured by persistent concern for the global economy, with data from Japan, the third largest oil consumer, showing that economic recovery may be shaky.
US crude oil futures for September settled down 76 cents at $66.75 after earlier falling to $65.23, the lowest since July 31. Brent crude for October settled down 90 cents at $70.54 The decline added to the market's $3.01, or 4.3 percent slide on Friday - the biggest loss since July 29 - after the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers showed confidence in early August dropped.
"Crude futures are down, following the stock markets. It looks like the economic optimism that we saw last week was overplayed as we saw a big bank fail and the market turned nervous on consumer confidence data," said Phil Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research in Chicago.
The US dollar rose against a basket of currencies as investors sought a safe haven away from commodities. US stock losses followed on from losses in Europe and Asia. US stocks slid lower, despite a gauge of manufacturing in New York state moved into positive territory in August, suggesting growth in the sector for the first time since April 2008.
Although the Atlantic hurricane season, which can disrupt Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production, has arrived, analysts said brimming crude stockpiles in the United States would limit the impact of a storm on oil prices. Hurricane Bill, the first of this season, is expected to strengthen to a major category 3 hurricane by Wednesday, possibly reaching the area of Bermuda early on Saturday, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Tropical storm Claudette was downgraded to a tropical depression over southern Alabama, and tropical depression Ana was on a track that could take it into the Gulf of Mexico by the end of the week. Ahead of weekly US inventory data on Tuesday from the American Petroleum Institute and Wednesday from the EIA, a Reuters poll of analysts showed that crude stocks were expected to have risen last week by 1 million barrels. Distillate stocks were seen up 400,000 barrels and gasoline stocks down 1.4 million barrels.