By MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch)-- Benchmark U.S. crude-oil futures slipped in electronic trading Tuesday ahead of weekly inventory reports due later in the day. Crude futures for April delivery CLJ2 -0.55% fell 60 cents, or 0.6%, to $107.44 a barrel during Asian trading hours, after earlier settling at its highest level in more than two weeks in the regular New York session. A slightly stronger dollar helped weigh on crude prices, with the dollar index DXY +0.04% rising to 79.517 from 79.451 late Monday in North America. The moves came ahead of weekly U.S. oil reports from the American Petroleum Institute later Tuesday, followed by the more closely watched U.S. Energy Information Administration release on Wednesday. Analysts polled by Platts forecast a 2.1 million barrel build in U.S. commercial crude inventories for the week ended March 16.
