Cloudy Economic Outlook Keeps Crude Oil Trading in Narrow Range for Week

Oil Market Summary for 07/26/2010 to 07/30/2010 Crude oil futures continued to trade in a very narrow range, unable to cross the $79 a barrel threshold even though they ended 4.4% higher on the month. The benchmark West Texas Intermediate rallied with the stock market late Friday to finish the week at $78.95 a barrel, virtually unchanged from $78.98 a week ago, after dipping just below $77 a barrel earlier in the week. End-of-month trading might have accounted for some the late gains, analysts said. Government data on slowing economic growth in the second quarter drove down both oil and stock prices early on Friday. The Department of Commerce said preliminary GDP growth was an annualized 2.4%, compared with an upward-adjusted first-quarter rate of 3.7%. The second-quarter rate was only…