By V. Phani Kumar and Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures nudged higher Thursday, after a German business climate index showed a stronger-than-expected rise in February and the dollar headed lower. April futures for light, sweet crude-oil CLJ2 +0.30% added 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $106.44 a barrel. Oil prices headed into positive territory after the Ifo Institute’s German business climate index jumped to 109.6 in February from 108.3 in January, exceeding analysts expectations. Read more about Ifo. A weaker dollar also supported crude oil prices and the ICE U.S. dollar index DXY -0.37% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, slipped Thursday 0.3% to 78.963. Commodities, traded in the American currency tend to rise on the back of a falling dollar, as it gets cheaper for investors holding other currencies. Oil prices have lately also been lifted by geopolitical worries concerning Iran. Japan may cut its Iranian crude oil imports by 20%, according to a report in the Nikkei business daily newspaper. Among other energy products, April futures for gasoline RBJ2 +0.40% rose 0.4% to $3.28 a gallon, and April futures for heating oil HOJ2 +0.81% advanced 0.9% to $3.30 a gallon. Prices of natural gas for delivery in March NGH12 +0.76% were up 0.7% to $2.66 per million British thermal units.

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