By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil prices rebounded in electronic trading Monday after suffering six straight days of declines, as the dollar weakened and as an increase in U.S. equity futures and some Asian stock markets helped improve sentiment.
Crude-oil futures for delivery in June CLM2 +0.30% rose 43 cents, or 0.5%, to $91.91 a barrel on Globex. The front-month contact dropped $1.08 Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange for its lowest settlement since Oct. 26.
The advance came as the U.S. dollar weakened further, on top of its decline Friday to snap a long uphill journey recently.
The ICE dollar index DXY +0.10% , which measures the greenback’s performance against a basket of six major global rivals, was down at 81.043, compared with 81.163 in North American trade late on Friday.
A weaker dollar tends to support commodities, such as crude oil, that are benchmarked in the greenback, by making them cheaper for holders of other currencies.
U.S. equity futures were higher in Asian trading hours Monday, also providing support to crude-oil futures. Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.59% futures were up 59 points, or 0.5%, at 12,394, while Standard & Poor’s 500 Index SPX -0.74% futures added 16 points, or 0.7%, to 2,484.25.
Asian stocks also recovered after a weak start, with Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average JP:100000018 +0.26% up 0.6% in Tokyo afternoon trading and China’s Shanghai Composite Index CN:000001 +0.17% rising 0.3%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HK:HSI -0.36% slipped 0.1%. Read Asia Markets.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, the June contracts for gasoline RBM2 +0.65% and heating-oil HOM2 +0.81% rose 0.8% to $2.91 per gallon, and 0.8% to $2.85 per gallon, respectively.
Natural-gas for delivery in June NGM12 -0.66% slipped 0.7% to $2.72 per million British thermal units.
Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.
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