By Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Benchmark U.S. crude-oil futures slipped in electronic trade Tuesday, surrendering some gains as the dollar staged a modest rebound.
During Asian trading hours, the New York Mercantile Exchange crude contract for February CLG3 -0.22% lost 39 cents, or 0.4%, to trade at $93.75 a barrel.
The rival benchmark Brent crude also moved lower, with the February Brent contract UK:LCOG3 -0.09% down 0.3% at $111.52 a barrel on ICE Futures in London.
The losses followed a 0.6% gain for Nymex crude during Monday’s regular floor session, as a weaker dollar helped send the contract to its highest point in almost four months. Read: Oil settles above $94, near four-month high
However, the forex support faded as the dollar moved back up Tuesday. The ICE dollar index DXY +0.02% , measuring the U.S. currency against six rivals, rose to 79.546 from 79.493 around the time of Monday’s Nymex close.
GFT Markets technical analyst Fawad Razaqzada also cited concerns about oil demand — or a lack thereof — as a factor in the Nymex session.
“Finding excuses for the buying, the bulls were arguing that while uncertainty about demand for oil remains, some of those worries have surely eased after China produced strong trade figures last week,” Razaqzada said of Monday’s rise for crude.
“More clues on demand will emerge as the earnings season kicks into a higher gear this week. Meanwhile, supply of oil remains abundant in North America, and this is one of the major factors weighing on prices,” he wrote in a note Tuesday.
The demand-supply dynamic was likely to provide the focus later in the global day, with the American Petroleum Institute set to report its weekly oil-inventory data at 4:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern time.
The more closely watched Department of Energy data were due out Wednesday morning.
Among other energy futures, February heating oil HOG3 +0.15% slipped fractionally to trade at $3.06 a gallon Tuesday in Asia, while February gasoline RBG3 -0.23% lost a penny to sit at $2.74 a gallon.
Michael Kitchen is Asia editor for MarketWatch and is based in Los Angeles.
