By MARI IWATA Crude oil futures fell on Wednesday following an overnight slip triggered by a stronger dollar and as caution prevailed ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony to Congress. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded at $95.73 a barrel at 0553 GMT, down $0.45 in the Globex electronic session. July Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.32 to $103.59 a barrel. Traders continued to stay on the sidelines, waiting for Bernanke's testimony, due later in the day, as they look for clues on the direction of monetary policy in the U.S., Daiichi Shohin analyst Koichi Murakami said. There are other indicators due today including retail-sales data from the U.K. and Canada, Bank of England minutes, U.S. existing-home sales and U.S. oil inventories from the Energy Information Administration. However, the crude-oil market won't respond until it hears Bernanke, Mr. Murakami said. Australia & New Zealand Banking Group ANZ.AU -1.15% said in a note that "given the risks from the large fiscal drag on the U.S. economy, we expect Bernanke and the Fed will remain cautious in any tapering of the current $85 billion per month asset-purchase program." It is widely expected that any sign of tapering by the Fed will trigger selling in the commodity markets, including crude oil. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for June--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 238 points to $2.8220 a gallon, while June heating oil traded at $2.9140, 150 points lower. ICE gasoil for June changed hands at $871.25 a metric ton, down $4.50 from Tuesday's settlement.

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