Oil creeps higher to near $77 as equities rise

Oil prices pushed toward $77 a barrel Monday, boosted by a rise in stock markets, particularly in Asia, but held back by lingering concerns about future demand.

By midday in Europe, benchmark crude for November delivery was up 3 cents to $76.52 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract peaked at $76.85 earlier in the session after rising $1.31 on Friday to close at $76.49.

A surprise jump in U.S. durable goods orders and corporate spending drove Wall Street higher on Friday and carried over to Asian trading on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.9 percent Friday and all major Asian stock indexes advanced, led by a 1.4 percent increase in Japan.

Most European stock markets were up less than half a percent in Monday trading.

Oil traders often look to stock markets as a barometer of overall investor sentiment.

Investors will be closely watching the latest indicators on U.S. consumer confidence Tuesday and second quarter gross domestic product Thursday, figures "which could make or break the equities rally," energy consultancy The Schork Report said.

"Perhaps not surprisingly, speculative flows into the oil market have been slow to pick up," said KBC Energy Economics in Britain. "A lot of money is waiting on the sidelines that could be invested in oil when the time is right, but that moment does not seem to have arrived just yet."

In other Nymex trading in October contracts, heating oil fell 0.47 cent to $2.1259 a gallon and gasoline lost 0.30 cent to $1.9441 a gallon. Natural gas plunged 11.7 cents to 3.764 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude fell 13 cents to $78.74 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.