By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures turned lower as the U.S. dollar bounced off session lows Thursday and as investors traded cautiously ahead of the next session’s unemployment report.
Crude for November delivery (CLX10 83.06, -0.17, -0.20%) reversed lower, trading off 10 cents, or 0.1%, to $83.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier the contract had touched $84.45 a barrel, extending a rise from the prior session, when it had finished at a five-month high.
Oil turned down alongside a reversal in U.S. equities, which lost ground after a higher open. Oil in recent weeks has taken cues from equities in intraday trading, with U.S. stocks seen as a barometer for investors’ perception of prospects for economic growth.
The dollar was also playing a driving role in commodities’ markets Thursday. After tumbling earlier, the greenback bounced off its session lows following the European Central Bank’s press conference and the release of U.S. jobless claims.
The dollar index (DXY 77.34, -0.05, -0.06%) pared losses to 77.37, off slightly from 77.397 in late New York trading on Wednesday, a marked improvement from intraday lows of 76.906. See more on the dollar’s broad-based pullback in currencies trading.
Oil last week broke through technical resistance, clearing the $80.50-a-barrel level, and this week broke through $83, a pattern that paves the way for a further climb to $86.50 to $87, said Ashraf Laidi, chief market strategist at CMC Markets.
“The importance of last week’s breakout and this week’s follow-through is highlighted by the break of the all-important 200-week [moving average]. Since the $83 resistance has finally been broken, the road appears open for a retest of the year’s high of $87.10,” Laidi wrote in a note.
Meanwhile, natural gas for November delivery (NGX10 3.72, -0.14, -3.70%) fell 7 cents, or 1.9%, to $3.79 per million British thermal units. In its weekly inventories data out at 10:30 a.m., the Energy Information Administration is expected to report a net injection of 74 to 78 billion cubic feet.
