By Mari Iwata Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Crude-oil futures fell Monday in Asia on the back of light profit-taking triggered by a strengthening of the dollar against other major currencies, with benchmark crudes falling around one dollar between the Asia opening and the start of business in Europe. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at $92.93 a barrel at 0752 GMT, down $0.39 in the Globex electronic session. December Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.53 to $109.38 a barrel. Crude opened slightly lower, and early trade was extremely thin, but then foreign exchange intervention by Japan's finance ministry and subsequent strengthening of the dollar encouraged some traders to take profits from gains earned from last week's Europe debt bailout pact. The dollar-yen rate rose from the mid-Y75 level to the mid-Y79 level shortly after the intervention, hitting a session high at Y79.55 before easing back. Several traders said the impact of the intervention would be short-lived, and that they would be taking their trading cues from several events later this week rather than the European debt crisis, which has been a major driver in recent times. Last week's European summit meeting produced a basic agreement to combat the euro zone's spreading debt crisis, but due to uncertainties over how the rescue plan is going to work, "traders are trying to find a cue for which way to go," said Mitsubishi UFJ Research & Consulting analyst Tomomichi Akuta. Upcoming events that will likely have a big impact on trading this week include the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, the European Central Bank's rate decision on Thursday and U.S. job data on Friday. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for November--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 222 points to $2.6600 a gallon, while November heating oil traded at $3.0437, 155 points lower. ICE gasoil for November changed hands at $957.50 a metric ton, down $4.75 from Friday's settlement. -By Mari Iwata, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6269-2798; mari.iwata@dowjones.com

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