MW: Oil futures fall as much as 2% on dollar advance
Contracts on petroleum products, natural gas also lower
By Myra P. Saefong and Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures fell by as much as 2% Monday, tracking a broad decline among commodities as the dollar climbed following Japanese intervention in the currency markets to stem the rise of the yen.
Crude for December delivery CL1Z -1.78% lost $1.32, or 1.54%, to reach $92 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The losses came as the dollar index USDJPY +3.15% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, climbed to 76.022, up from 75.063 late Friday. A stronger dollar tends to weigh on demand for oil and other commodities.
The dollar’s gains came after Finance Minister Jun Azumi said that the Bank of Japan intervened in the currency markets for the first time since August, according to reports from the region. Read more on reported intervention.
Oil futures had declined 64 cents to $93.32 in regular trading on Friday, although the benchmark contract ended the week up 6.7%. Read more on Friday's oil move.
“Most commodity markets eased on Friday, as an expected round of profit-taking set in after several weeks of robust gains. Markets also backed off somewhat after investors took a closer look at the recently completed European debt accords and realized that there are some loose ends that still have not yet been fully settled,” said Edward Meir, analyst at MF Global.
Late last week, European leaders announced the latest steps in a series of measures designed to stem the region’s debt crisis.
“Despite the misgivings that are surfacing, we suspect markets will likely hold their gains, as the accords are impressive in that they have brought together a disparate group of politicians to coalesce around a program, questionable as some of its parts seem to be,” said Meir, in a note.
Heating oil and gasoline prices traded lower along with gold Monday, ahead of the expiration of the November contracts at the close of trading on Nymex.
November heating oil HO1X -1.07% was down 3 cents at $3.03 a gallon and November gasoline RB1X -2.58% lost 5 cents to $2.63 a gallon.
December natural gas NG11Z -0.89% traded at $3.89 per million British thermal units, down 4 cents.
