By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures were mildly lower in electronic trading Monday as the dollar strengthened and Asian stocks, U.S. stock index futures declined.
The January contract for light, sweet crude-oil futures CL2F -0.88% fell 25 cents, or 0.3%, to $93.28 a barrel on Globex, dropping further after a 34 cent decline in a regular session on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday.
Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.02% futures slipped 30 points, or 0.3%, to 11,748 during Asian morning hours Monday.
Stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region also declined in early trading, reversing Friday’s gains as European worries returned to weigh on sentiment. Read Asian markets.
The U.S. dollar appreciated a little, meanwhile, reflecting investor risk aversion. The ICE dollar index DXY +0.38% , which measures the greenback’s moves against a basket of six major global currencies, inched up to 80.26 from 80.216 in North American trade late Friday.
Among other energy futures, the February contract RB2G -0.40% for gasoline declined 0.2% to $2,49 a gallon, while heating oil HO2G -0.36% for delivery in the same month shed 0.3% to $2.80 a gallon. January futures for natural gas NG12F -1.34% dropped 1.3% to $3.09 per million British thermal units.
Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.
