By Kristene Quan, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Benchmark U.S. crude-oil futures sat flat during electronic trading early Thursday, getting only the slightest of boosts from data showing lower-than-expected crude inventories.
Crude oil for December delivery CLZ2 -0.02% rose 1 cent, or less than 0.1%, to $86.33 a barrel on Globex during Asia trading hours.
The slight increase extended a 94-cent jump for the contract to settle at $86.32 a barrel Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
After Wednesday’s settlement, the American Petroleum Institute said that crude-oil supplies rose a less-than-expected 1.35 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 9.
The more closely watched U.S. Energy Information Administration report was due out later Thursday, with a Platts survey tipping expectations for a 1.5 million-barrel increase in crude-oil stocks. Read: Oil supply up more than 1 million barrels: API.
GFT technical analyst Fawad Razaqzada said crude-oil contracts have recently been supported by a weaker dollar and geopolitical concerns in the Middle East.
“The fact that [crude oil] has managed to hold above $85 for a number of sessions now is technically bullish,” said Razaqzada.
The dollar made slight gains during Asian hours Thursday, with ICE dollar index DXY +0.06% inching higher to 81.192 from 81.111 in late North American trade Wednesday.
Among other energy products Thursday, heating-oil for December delivery HOZ2 +0.20% rose 0.2% to $2.99 a gallon, and gasoline for delivery in the same month RBZ2 +0.44% increased 0.7% to $2.70 a gallon.
Natural-gas futures for December NGZ12 +0.32% rose 0.3% to $3.77 per million British thermal units.
Kristene Quan is a MarketWatch reporter, based in Hong Kong.
