By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil prices stayed weak in electronic trading Thursday because of a firm dollar and a decline in U.S. equity futures, with monetary policy meetings at the European Central Bank and the Bank of England on tap.
Light, sweet crude-oil futures for delivery in August CLQ2 -1.13% dropped 75 cents, or 0.9%, to $86.91 a barrel on Globex.
The front-month contract had jumped $3.91, or 4.7%, in a regular session on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday, aided by geopolitical concerns over the Middle-East and hopes for monetary policy stimulus with the European Central Bank and the Bank of England due to meet Thursday.
U.S. markets were closed Wednesday for the Independence Day holiday.
The drop in Asian hours on Thursday came as the ICE dollar index DXY +0.86% , which measures the greenback’s performance against a basket of six major global currencies, rose to 82.153 from 82.132 in North American trade late on Wednesday.
A stronger dollar tends to pressure commodity prices benchmarked in the currency.
A decline in U.S. equity futures, reflective of a likely lower opening on Wall Street and indicative of weak investor sentiment, also pressured crude-oil prices.
Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.64% futures were down 28 points, or 0.2%, to 12,839, while Standard & Poor’s 500 Index SPX -0.75% futures gave up 0.3% to 1,364.60.
Among other energy products, August futures for gasoline RBQ2 +0.46% and heating-oil HOQ2 -0.46% were at 2.70 per gallon and $2.73 per gallon, dropping 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively.
Natural-gas futures for delivery in the same month NGQ12 +0.55% rose 1.6% to $2.95 per million British thermal units, respectively.
Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.
