By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — U.S. crude-oil futures fell on Monday as the dollar edged higher and weakness in many Asian equity markets weighed on investor risk appetite.
Crude-oil futures for November delivery CLX2 -0.25% slid 39 cents, or 0.3%, to $91.56 a barrel on Globex during Asian hours.
On Friday, the contract had dropped 21 cents during a regular New York Mercantile Exchange session after the International Energy Agency cut its 2012 estimate of growth in oil demand, but still managed to finish the week 2.2% higher.
Despite Monday’s decline, analysts said oil markets were likely to remain well supplied going into 2013.
“There is always the risk of a geopolitical event that could disrupt supply to a degree that tips the market into a deficit, but absent such a development, the base case scenario here [for crude-oil] is bearish,” said Timothy Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures.
The ICE dollar index DXY -0.04% , which measures the greenback’s performance against a basket of six major global currencies, rose to 79.721 in Hong Kong, up from 79.677 in late North American trade Friday.
Most Asian stock markets declined Monday after data out of China showed an increase in consumer prices that was in line with expectations, although wholesale prices dropped more than estimated. Read Asia Markets. and More about China inflation data.
European stocks traded higher, however. Read: Europe stocks rise after Chinese data
Among other energy products, November heating-oil prices HOX2 -0.30% dropped was flat at $3.22 a gallon and natural-gas futures NGX12 -1.08% for delivery in the same month shed 1% to $3.57 per million British thermal units.
November futures for gasoline RBX2 -0.86% were flat at $2.89 a gallon.
Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.
