BLBG: Crude oil modestly lower as dollar strengthens
Gasoline keeps rally going, rising 1%
By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures paused Thursday, giving back a little bit of the gains amassed in previous sessions and trading below $87 a barrel.
Crude for January delivery (CLF11 86.92, +0.17, +0.20%) declined 17 cents, or 0.2%, to $86.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rallied more than 3% on Wednesday on a combination of weaker dollar and positive macroeconomic reports from around the world.
A crucial part of Wednesday’s rally was missing, however, as the dollar rose on Thursday. The euro slipped as the European Central Bank said it was holding interest-rates at a record-low 1%.
The dollar index (DXY 80.44, -0.27, -0.33%) , which compares the U.S. unit to a basket of six currencies, traded fractionally up at 80.78, compared to 80.73 in late North American trade Wednesday.
Most products bucked the downward trend for oil, with gasoline extending its rally to gain 3 cents, or 1.1%, to $2.33 a gallon. Gasoline for January delivery (RBF11 2.30, +0.12, +5.30%) jumped 5% on Wednesday to settle at its highest in nearly six months.
Natural-gas futures for January (NGF11 4.32, +0.05, +1.15%) rose 4 cents, or 0.9%, to $4.31 per million British thermal units.
The Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release its weekly data on natural-gas inventories Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.
The agency’s chief economist said earlier this week a natural-gas surplus is expected to continue into the next 10 years, but prices will still increase due to growing demand from China and the Middle East, and from the fact that coal generating facilities worldwide will go offline, according to a report summarizing the comments published by MF Global.
Prices of natural gas are forecast to grow to $7 per million British thermal units by 2015, the economist reportedly said.
