By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Oil futures lost ground in electronic trading Monday, after the dollar climbed following Japanese intervention in the currency markets to stem the rise of the yen.
Benchmark Nymex light sweet crude-oil futures for December delivery CL1Z -0.50% lost 95 cents, or 1%, to reach $92.37a barrel in electronic trading.
The losses came as the dollar index USDJPY +4.42% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded at 76.188, up from 75.063 in late North American trading on Friday.
The move for the U.S. dollar came after Japan’s Finance Minister Jun Azumi said that the Bank of Japan intervened in the currency markets for the first time since August, according to reports from the region. Read more on reported intervention.
Oil futures had declined 64 cents to $93.32 in regular trading on Friday, although the benchmark contract ended the week up 6.7%. Read more on Friday's oil move.
“Most commodity markets eased on Friday, as an expected round of profit-taking set in after several weeks of robust gains. Markets also backed off somewhat after investors took a closer look at the recently completed European debt accords and realized that there are some loose ends that still have not yet been fully settled,” said Edward Meir, analyst at MF Global.
Late last week, European leaders announced the latest steps in a series of measures designed to stem the region’s debt crisis.
“Despite the misgivings that are surfacing, we suspect markets will likely hold their gains, as the accords are impressive in that they have brought together a disparate group of politicians to coalesce around a program, questionable as some of its parts seem to be,” said Meir.
Sarah Turner is MarketWatch's bureau chief in Sydney.
