SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Crude-oil futures were mixed in Asia Wednesday in light trade, with Iran's latest threat to cut supplies and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East tempered by renewed concerns about European sovereign debt ahead of a key Italian bond auction.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February traded at $101.51 a barrel at 0638 GMT, up $0.17 in the Globex electronic session. February Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.05 to $109.22 a barrel.
The U.S. benchmark breached the 100-a-barrel mark overnight after Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said Tuesday that Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz, which handles more than a third of the world's ocean-borne oil, if Western nations sanction its oil exports.
Meanwhile, the hijacking of an Italian oil tanker Tuesday near the coast of Oman by pirates, also created some jitters among market participants, supporting prices, said a Tokyo-based trader.
Traded volumes are lower ahead of the New Year, as most traders are away on seasonal breaks, he said, tipping the Nymex contract to trade between $100 and $104 a barrel this week.
Italy's bond auction later in the global day could provide fresh cues, said Jim Ritterbusch at Ritterbusch & Associates, adding that any low-volume price rallies on the Iranian issue would likely be unsustainable.
"We will caution against selling this market north of the $100/bbl mark as we await further guidance from the euro zone, additional U.S. economic releases and a clearer technical picture," he said
Investors also expect fresh cues from weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute due late Wednesday and from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday.
U.S. commercial crude stocks for the week ended Dec. 23 are expected to fall by 2.9 million barrels, based on the average forecast of five analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.
The stocks data probably won't hold any surprises for the market, said a second Tokyo-based trader. He expects Brent to trade around the $109-a-barrel mark in the coming sessions "unless there's something more exciting," such as escalation of geopolitical risks or a steeper-than-expected fall in inventories.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for January--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 16 points to $2.6872 a gallon, while January heating oil traded at $2.9118, 33 points higher.
ICE gasoil for January changed hands at $924.75 a metric ton, up $0.25 from Tuesday's settlement.
-By Surabhi Sahu, Dow Jones Newswires; +65 6415 4086; surabhi.sahu@dowjones.com
