By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures on Friday saw gains following two days of losses, supported by a weaker dollar.
Crude oil for October delivery CLV2 +0.57% added 55 cents, or 0.6%, to $95.17 a barrel in electronic trade.
The gains marked an end to a downturn in prices in recent days, when Hurricane Isaac spared oil-refining hubs in the Gulf of Mexico.
A weaker dollar helped lift energy prices on Friday, ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech at Jackson Hole, Wyo., where market participants will look closely for hints of further quantitative easing to boost economic growth.
Further stimulus measures may be seen as a negative for the dollar, helping dollar-denominated commodities, such as crude oil.
“If the statements made by U.S. Fed Chairman Bernanke prove disappointing, oil prices could come under pressure, for the development of supply on the crude oil market is also more relaxed at present than many recently feared,” analysts at Commerzbank said, in a note.
The ICE dollar index DXY -0.49% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six rival currencies, slipped to 81.386 from 81.704 in late North American trading Thursday.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, most futures edged higher.
September gasoline RBU2 +0.15% rose 0.3% to $3.09 a gallon, while heating oil for the same month HOU2 +0.44% added 0.4% to $3.14 a gallon.
Natural gas for October delivery NGV12 +0.04% slipped 0.1% to $2.75 per million British thermal units.
Sara Sjolin is a MarketWatch reporter, based in London.
