By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures rebounded on Tuesday as the dollar weakened and U.S. index futures pointed to further gains on Wall Street ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary-policy decision later in the day.
Light-sweet-crude-oil futures for delivery in April CLJ2 +0.56% rose 57 cents, or 0.5%, to $106.91 a barrel in electronic trading during Asian afternoon hours. The advance helped the contract take back some of the $1.06 it lost in a regular session on the New York Mercantile Exchange Monday.
A decline in the ICE dollar index DXY -0.08% , which measures the greenback’s performance against a basket of six major rivals, supported prices of commodities benchmarked in the greenback.
U.S. index futures advanced, meanwhile, on top of four straight days of gains for stocks on Wall Street. Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.29% futures were up 57 points at 12,954. Asian markets were also mostly higher. Read Asia Markets.
The Fed, scheduled to announce its policy decision later in the U.S. day, is expected to stand pat on interest rates and will likely refrain from providing any clues on its exit strategy from the current accommodative stance. Read a preview of the Fed’s decision.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, gasoline RBJ2 +0.47% and heating oil HOJ2 +0.62% futures for delivery in April rose 0.6% to $3.34 a gallon and 0.6% to $3.26 a gallon, respectively.
April natural-gas futures NGJ12 -0.22% dropped 0.3% to $2.26 per million British thermal units.
