Summary Oil prices pushed higher on Monday despite weak economic data in China and the United States.
NEW YORK (AFP) - Oil prices pushed higher on Monday despite weak economic data in China and the United States, the two biggest global consumers of crude.
In New York the benchmark WTI crude for August delivery gained 37 cents to $106.32 a barrel.
In London trading, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August added 28 cents, settling at $109.09.
China reported that economic growth slowed to a 7.5 percent pace in the April-June quarter, down from 7.7 percent in the previous three months.
The slower growth rate came in as expected, which analysts said might explain the lack of impact on the market.
"China has also been heavily relied upon to lift the rest of the world out of the slump," Gekko Markets analyst Anita Paluch told AFP.
"As such, every piece of news tends to dominate the headlines. With today's data, this seems to have been priced in."
Even so, Paluch said, "slower growth will have impact on those countries who have strong trade links with China, like Australia, Brazil and (the) Southeast Asia region."
Crude prices also showed little reaction to the US Commerce Department's report of a tepid 0.4 percent expansion in retail sales in June, a number which led economists to cut their US growth estimates for the second quarter.
New York oil spiked last week to a 15-month pinnacle of $107.45 -- last seen in late March 2012 -- after US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to retain the central bank's easy-money stimulus policy.
The market has also won a boost from supply fears linked to the political turmoil in Egypt.
But Citi Futures analyst Timothy Evans said the market was still looking expensive.
After a 21.6 percent rise this year in the WTI contract price, he said, "we view the market as increasingly overvalued relative to its underlying fundamentals, with possible risk to more conservative valuations such as $82-85 for WTI and $90-95 for Brent over the intermediate term."
