MW: Oil comes off six-week lows as equities rise, dollar weakens
By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures rose from six-week lows Monday, as optimism about continued merger activity pushed stocks higher and fueled hopes for higher oil demand.
Crude oil for October delivery added 5 cents, or 0.1%, to $73.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oil prices were tracking the rise in equities, which is often seen as a proxy for improved economic conditions, said Peter Beutel, president of Connecticut-based trading advisory firm Cameron Hanover.
A falling dollar was also doing its part to support oil prices, which have closed lower for eight of the past nine sessions. The dollar index (DXY 83.09, +0.04, +0.04%) , which compares the U.S. unit to a basket of six currencies, slipped 0.1% to 83.02.
On Friday, crude-oil futures declined to their lowest level since mid-July, taking cues from a global equities selloff as worries deepened about the global recovery and the dollar rose.
Oil lost 2.6% last week, on the heels of a nearly 7% decline in the previous week.
Other energy products remained lower. Reformulated gasoline for September delivery, the front-month contract expiring next week, lost a penny, or 0.4%, to $1.92 a gallon, the lowest price in a week.
Natural gas for September delivery, also the front-month expiring contract, declined 3 cents, or 0.8%, to $4.11 per million British thermal units. A close around these levels would be the lowest since May 25.
