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Oil below $83 after no Bernanke stimulus hint

Benchmark oil for July delivery was down $1.99 to $82.83 per barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 20 cents to settle at $84.82 in New York on Thursday.

In London, Brent crude for July delivery was down $1.83 at $98.10 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Bernanke told Congress on Thursday that the Fed is ready to act if the financial crisis in Europe threatens the US economy. But he didn’t indicate that any new steps were on the way.

Some analysts expect policymakers won’t sharply loosen monetary policy until the global economy and crude demand are weaker.

“There have been no ‘game changers’ this week,” said Julian Jessop, chief global economist for Capital Economics. “The prices of commodities should end the year much lower than they are now.”

Barclays said crude will likely trade sideways for the next few weeks now that a gloomier global economic outlook has been factored in.

In other energy trading, heating oil was down 2.5 cents at $2.64 per gallon while gasoline futures fell 3.6 cents at $2.65 per gallon. Natural gas slid 1.8 cents at $2.26 per 1,000 cubic feet.