By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Oil futures edged lower Thursday, as the dollar strengthened and U.S. stock futures weakened.
Crude for September delivery CLU2 -0.60% slipped 47 cents, or 0.5%, to $88.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
On Wednesday, crude futures advanced 47 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $88.97 a barrel and seal a near-1% two-session advance. Read more on Wednesday's oil move.
But Thursday’s losses for oil came as the dollar index DXY +0.02% advanced to 83.681, from 83.5734 in late North American trading on Wednesday. A rising dollar can often depress prices of dollar-denominated commodities, such as crude oil.
U.S. stock futures were pointing to a lower open for the Wall Street on Thursday, also weighing on sentiment.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures DJU2 +0.02% slipped 9 points to 12,628, Nasdaq 100 futures NDU2 +0.07% lost 1.25 points to 2.542.25 and S&P 500 futures SPU2 -0.10% were down 1.80 points to 1,333.10 in Asian trading hours.
A higher dollar, lower U.S. stock futures and lower oil can indicate that investors are concerned about the global economy and reluctant to take on risk.
Among other energy futures, August gasoline RBQ2 -0.08% traded flat at $2.79 a gallon, while August heating oil HOQ2 -0.52% declined 1 cent to $2.84 a gallon.
August natural gas NGQ12 -0.20% slipped 1 cent to $3.05 per million British thermal units.
Sarah Turner is MarketWatch's bureau chief in Sydney.
