By Kristene Quan, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures traded a touch lower during electronic trading Friday, helped by mild gains for the dollar.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil for December delivery CLZ2 +0.05% shed 5 cents, or less than 0.1%, to $85.42 a barrel on Globex during late Asia trading hours.
The slight decline extended an 87-cent drop for the contract to settle at $85.45 a barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The ICE dollar index DXY +0.11% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, edged higher to 81.060, up from 81.039 in late North American trade Thursday, offering a slight headwind for dollar-denominated crude.
GFT technical analyst Fawad Razaqzada said crude-oil prices reflected disappointing global macroeconomic data — including U.S. jobless claims and a contraction in the euro-zone economy — offset by below-forecast oil stocks in the U.S.
“Crude-oil inventories showed a build of 1.1 million barrels last week, but this was lower than expected, leading to a slight bounce in [Nymex crude futures] prices,” said Razaqzada.
Among other energy products Friday, heating oil for December delivery HOZ2 -0.05% fell 0.1% to $2.97 a gallon, and gasoline for delivery in the same month RBZ2 -0.39% declined 0.3% to $2.69 a gallon.
However, natural-gas futures for December delivery NGZ12 +0.51% rose 0.5% to $3.72 per million British thermal units.
Kristene Quan is a MarketWatch reporter, based in Hong Kong.
