By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil futures traded higher on Monday as investors were mostly positive about the U.S. economic outlook and the dollar traded slightly lower.
Crude oil futures for April delivery CLJ2 +0.54% rose 69 cents, or 0.6%, to $107.72 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oil ended at $107.06 on Friday, marking the first close above the $107 level for a front-month contract since March 9.
Trading was quiet amid lack of major macroeconomic reports and traders took to heart the mostly positive comments by head of the International Monetary Fund, said Matt Smith, an oil analyst with Summit Energy in Kentucky.
IMF’s Christine Lagarde said the global economy had stepped off from the brink in recent months, although she also cautioned about Greece and said higher oil prices are a threat to the global recovery.
Geopolitical concerns also came to the fore as Saudi Arabia has reportedly failed to match the same terms as Iran in providing oil to India, Smith added.
European Union-imposed oil sanctions on Iranian oil are slated to start in July. The U.S. has pressured India not to take Tehran’s oil, but conversations between India and potential replacer Saudi Arabia have hit a snag.
Earlier Monday, New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley struck a cautious tone in a speech. Dudley said the U.S. economy still faces “significant headwinds and there are some meaningful downside risks.”
The dollar edged lower following the remarks, providing further support for oil and other dollar-denominated commodities. The dollar index, which compares the U.S. unit to a basket of six currencies, traded at 79.377, down from 79.776 in North American trade late Friday.
Other energy products were mixed, with April gasoline futures RBJ2 +0.22% rising 1 cent, or 0.2%, to $3.37 a gallon. April natural gas futures NGJ12 +1.72% gained 4 cents, or 1.7%, to $2.37 per million British thermal units.
April heating oil HOJ2 -0.28% , however, declined 1 cent, or 0.3%, to $3.27 a gallon.
