Oil Weakens

  Now, amid all the boasting from Pittsburg and the other chat usual for a Friday, oil futures had their worst week for two months last week.Allied with some disappointingly average economic figures from Japan, Europe and the US (they were OK, but not a further sign of the 'bounce'). & #160;Crude futures ended Friday's volatile trading up slightly, rising for the first session in three after the release of mixed economic data.But over the week oil & #160;tumbled & #160;8.4%, the biggest weekly loss for & #160;more than nearly 10 weeks.November crude rose 13 cents, or 0.2%, to end at & #36;US66.20 a barrel in New York Friday, after dropping as low as & #36;US65.05, the lowest level for a front-month contract since the end of July.Oil fell and rose on Friday according to the flow of news on the economy: some news was good, such as consumer confidence, others poor, such as housing sales and durable goods orders, both of which were worse than forecast.A big drop in orders for new airliners pushed total durable-goods orders down 2.4% in August, the largest decline since January. Economists had been looking for an increase.The Commerce Department also said & #160;sales of new homes flattened out last month after four months of strong increases. & #160;That wasn't expected either.Goldman Sachs said Friday it was maintaining & #160;its end-of-year target for benchmark crude prices at & #36;US85 a barrel, along with an average 2010 price forecast of & #36;US90 a barrel and its end-of-2010 target of & #36;US95 a barrel.  

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