By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Benchmark light, sweet crude-oil futures inched higher in New York Mercantile Exchange electronic trading during Asian hours on Tuesday, as U.S. and European debt issues dominated sentiment in global asset markets.
Crude for August delivery CL1Q +0.22% tacked on 28 cents to $96.21 a barrel, paring some losses made in the previous session when the contract fell $1.31, or 1.4%. Read more on Monday's oil move.
Monday’s losses and Tuesday’s slight gains coincided with moves for the U.S. dollar index, which gained on Monday as investors fretting about progress on tackling Europe’s sovereign-debt issues turned to the dollar as a safe place to put their money.
The dollar index DXY +0.04% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, couldn’t build on those gains on Tuesday, however, trading at 75.312 in the Asian afternoon, down from 75.343 in late North American trading on Monday.
Commodities priced in dollars generally move inversely to the greenback.
Energy analysts at MF Global said that, until there is more clarity over whether private owners of Greek government bonds can contribute to the country’s bailout without triggering a default, “we suspect the tone in most commodity markets, including energy, will remain relatively jittery.”
Still, they said that “if the outlines of a resolution start to take definitive shape, an upside bounce in the equity and debt markets could pull commodity markets higher.”
Sarah Turner is MarketWatch's bureau chief in Sydney.
