MW: Oil trades mostly lower, holds ground under $80
By Myra P. Saefong
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures traded mostly lower Thursday, pressured by some strength in the U.S. dollar as well as news that weekly initial jobless claims ticked higher last week. November crude CL1X -0.05% shed 38 cents to trade at $79.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. "Looks like it could be a choppy day in crude oil, [and] most of the markets, as traders sort through the headlines," said Darin Newsom, senior analyst at Telvent DTN. For now, crude oil has no fundamental reason to rally "and is still dealing with bearish technical signals. A lackluster economic outlook could keep it on the defensive," he said.
