By Sarah Turner , MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Oil futures edged lower in electronic trading during Asian hours on Thursday, extending a steep drop from the previous session on concerns about the health of the U.S. economy.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery CLN11 +0.40% declined 26 cents to $100.03 a barrel in Nymex electronic trading on Thursday.
“Energy prices closed sharply lower on Wednesday, as a steady drip-feed of poor macro numbers cracked a number of markets wide open,” said energy analysts at MF Global.
Oil futures fell 2.4% on Wednesday, with the move more than cancelling out a 2.1% advance made Tuesday, as worries about U.S. growth trumped optimism earlier in the week for a timely resolution to Europe’s sovereign debt woes.
Those hopes were dealt a blow Wednesday, after Moody’s downgraded Greece’s credit rating again, this time to Caa1 from B1 with the ratings agency saying that there’s an even chance the country will default.
Poor economic data out from the U.S. on Wednesday meant that investors turned to the U.S. dollar as a safe-haven investment. Commodities are priced in dollars and usually trade inversely to the U.S. dollar.
