By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch MADRID (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures bounced in electronic trading to take back some of the fuel’s recent losses as the dollar fell on an upbeat German economic survey, ahead of the expiration of the May front-month contract later Friday. The gains were supported by an advance for U.S. equity futures and a decline in the U.S. dollar against major currencies. Light, sweet crude-oil futures for delivery in May CLK2 +1.06% rose 63 cents, or 0.6%, to $102.90 a barrel during Asian business hours, after settling 40 cents lower on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. The June Nymex contract CLM2 +1.00% , meanwhile, climbed 61 cents, or 0.6%, to $103.33 a barrel. The advance for oil came as U.S. equity futures posted gains, after two consecutive days of losses on Wall Street, which in turn led to a broad retreat for Asian markets on Friday. Read Asia Markets. Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.53% futures climbed 58 points, or 0.4%, to 12,960, while Standard & Poor’s 500 futures SPX -0.59% added 5.7 points, or 0.4%, to 1,378.20. CLM2 103.75, +1.03, +1.00% 1201008060 12JAOM Meanwhile, the ICE dollar index DXY -0.31% dropped to 79.275 from 79.563 in late North American trading Thursday, with the dollar under particular pressure against the euro after Germany’s Ifo Institute said its business-confidence gauge nudged up to 109.9 in April from 109.8 in March. Markets will be watching for developments from International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings over the weekend, as well as the results of the first-round presidential vote in France. Read about France's election. Also in electronic trading Friday, the May contract for gasoline RBK2 +0.11% was flat at $3.15 a gallon as May heating oil HOK2 +0.74% added 1 cent to $3.153 per gallon. May natural-gas futures NGK12 +0.16% gained 1 cent, or 0.5%, to $1.92 per million British thermal units. Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.

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