By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil prices were tamped down in electronic trading Tuesday as concerns about excess supply and investor caution ahead of U.S. inventory data weighed on the commodity.
June futures for light, sweet crude oil CLM2 -0.11% slipped 17 cents, or 0.2%, to $102.94 a barrel on Globex, extending losses amid political and economic worries about Europe, although the dollar declined and U.S. stock futures were a little higher.
The front-month contract dropped 77 cents in the regular session on the New York Mercantile Exchange overnight.
“With March total [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] production estimated at ... the highest since 2008, it is clear that recovering Libyan oil production and supplies from other members have been more than enough to offset reduced Iranian production,” said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective.
“Coupled with global oil demand that grew by a modest 0.8% in [the first quarter], we think this translates to a supply/demand surplus ... that we see continuing through [the second quarter],” he said.
The American Petroleum Institute was scheduled to issue its weekly petroleum reporter later Tuesday.
The drop came despite a slip for the ICE dollar index DXY -0.11% , which generally aids prices of commodities.
U.S. stock-index futures also saw marginal gains after stocks on Wall Street fell Monday, with Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.78% futures gaining 5 points to 12,876.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, the May contract for gasoline RBK2 -0.26% shed 0.2% to $3.18 per gallon, while May heating oil HOK2 -0.09% slipped 0.1% to $3.14 per gallon.
Natural-gas futures for May delivery NGK12 -0.10% rose 0.6% to $2.02 per million British thermal units.
Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.
