By Kristene Quan and Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures wobbled during European trading hours as the dollar built on recent gains Friday, while disruptions to a North American pipeline gave rise to supply concerns.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery CLX2 +0.72% fell 14 cents, or 0.1%, to trade at $91.96 a barrel on Globex.
Oil futures had lost ground on Thursday after a clutch of economic reports weighed on investor confidence and propelled the dollar higher.
On Friday, a stronger dollar also weighed on oil investors’ buying appetite. Commodities priced in dollars, such as oil, tend to weaken when the dollar gains, as they become more expensive for holders of other currencies.
The ICE dollar index DXY +0.12% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major global currencies, lately climbed to 79.439, up from 79.356 in late North American trading Thursday.
However, crude found some support as a result of worries about supplies to the U.S. in coming days. The Keystone pipeline, a major source of crude to refineries in the Midwest and the Gulf Coast, was shut Thursday for three days after TransCanada Corp. TRP -1.42% CA:TRP -0.67% said it found a “small anomaly” during routine tests. See: TransCanada shuts Keystone oil pipeline
Traders juxtaposed this against concerns about supplies in the Middle East, with the European Union’s imposition of new sanctions on Iranian oil and gas companies serving as the latest escalation tied to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Also Friday, heating oil for November delivery HOX2 +1.03% rose 1 cent to $3.18 a gallon as November gasoline RBX2 +1.09% rose 3 cents to $2.77 a gallon.
Natural-gas futures for November delivery NGX12 +0.89% added 3 cents to $3.61 per million British thermal units.
Kristene Quan is a MarketWatch reporter, based in Hong Kong.
Sara Sjolin is a MarketWatch reporter, based in London.
