By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures nudged higher in electronic trading Tuesday, consolidating on an overnight rebound, as Asian stock markets and U.S. index futures advanced.
The January contract for light, sweet crude-oil CL2F +0.55% climbed 57 cents, or 0.6%, to $94.45 a barrel on Globex during Asian afternoon hours.
The gains come on top of a 35 cent improvement in regular trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange Monday that snapped a three-day losing streak for the commodity.
“While we continue to read of how money managers have trimmed exposures across a range of markets and for commodities as a more general class, the oil market is a clear exception, with one of the highest net long positions of the year,” said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective.
“We see this as a clear vulnerability to bearish news,” he added.
Among other energy products, the February heating oil contract HO2G +0.61% rose 0.6% to $2.81 a gallon and gasoline futures for the same month RB2G +0.62% rose 0.6% to $2.51 a gallon. January natural gas futures NG12F +0.48% , meanwhile, climbed 0.6% to $3.115 per million British thermal units.
