By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures extended gains in electronic trading Friday, with investors encouraged by action taken by central banks designed to ease tightening credit conditions in the euro zone.
Crude oil for October delivery CL1V +0.18% added 32 cents, or 0.4%, to $89.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange during Asian trading hours.
Oil rose 0.6% in the North American session, as relatively encouraging euro-zone debt developments buoyed investor sentiment about the economic outlook and demand for energy.
The European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank and the Federal Reserve said Thursday that they will provide extra dollar liquidity to commercial banks.
The focus in the euro zone’s debt situation is now fixed on a meeting of European finance ministers, due to begin later Friday, which will also be attended by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Crude prices are on track to post a gain of around 2.8% for the week, according to data from FactSet, and strategists at Barclays Capital anticipate further strengthening in demand.
“We expect U.S. oil demand to follow through an improving trajectory for the third quarter, in line with our economists’ view of improving prospects for the U.S. economy, relative to the second quarter,” the strategists said.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
