By MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures bounced between minor gains and losses Thursday ahead of weekly inventories data, with the commodity torn between a cheaper dollar and tepid signals from U.S. economic data.
Crude for November delivery recently up 28 cents at $83.29 a barrel (CLX10 83.30, +0.29, +0.35%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had climbed as high as $84.12 earlier and then turned lower.
Separate U.S. reports showed an unexpected rise in jobless claims in the latest week and producer prices rising a bigger-than-expected 0.4% in September.
The dollar recovered a bit after hitting new lows against several currencies, including a 15-year-low versus the Japanese yen, after Singapore’s central bank surprised markets by expanding the trading band for the Singapore dollar, effectively tightening monetary policy. The dollar index (DXY 76.54, -0.53, -0.69%) fell to 76.565 from 77.061 late Wednesday, off the day’s low of 76.259.
Later in the session, the Energy Department releases weekly inventories reports on oil and natural gas. The report has been delayed by a day due to Monday’s Columbus Day holiday.
Analysts polled by Platts expect an increase of 1.5 million barrels to crude inventories, a decrease of 1.5 million barrels for gasoline, and a 1.5 million barrel decline for distillates.
Late Wednesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported an unexpected decline in crude-oil inventories by 4 million barrels.
Natural gas for November delivery (NGX10 3.71, +0.02, +0.43%) fell 7 cents, or 2.1%, to $3.618 per million British thermal units. Analysts polled by Platts expect the EIA to report a net injection of 89 to 93 billion cubic feet in natural gas in its weekly storage data, also out Thursday.
In corporate industry developments, Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY 85.34, +1.05, +1.25%) Chief Executive Officer Ray Irani plans to give up his CEO title next year and then retire at the end of 2014, the oil and gas producer said Thursday.
