MW:Crude-oil catches a mild bid, but stays under $80
By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil prices bounced off October lows but stayed below $80 a barrel in electronic trading Friday, as the dollar weakened and U.S. equity futures edged higher.
The August contact for light, sweet crude-oil futures CLQ2 -0.36% rose 42 cents, or 0.5%, to $78.62 a barrel on Globex.
The front-month contract had slumped $3.25 on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday, getting slapped amid concerns weakening global growth would take a toll on demand.
In Asia on Friday, stock markets were broadly lower after a sharp sell-off on Wall Street. Read Asia Markets.
But U.S. equity futures edged higher, with Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -1.96% futures climbing 30 points, or 0.2%, to 12,532 and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index SPX -2.23% futures gaining 3.60 points, or 0.3%, to 1,321.90.
The ICE dollar index DXY +0.06% , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major global rivals, declined, providing commodities and other risk assets a lift.
David Morrison, senior market strategist at GFT Markets, noted traders had yet again responded to a dismal global economic picture by selling crude. “In the absence [of] fresh buying, then last October’s intra-day low under $75 becomes a downside target,” he said.
Among other energy products, July futures for gasoline RBN2 -0.09% , heating-oil HON2 -0.19% and natural-gas NGN12 +0.85% rose by 0.6% to $2.57 per gallon, by 0.7% to $2.54 per gallon, and by 1.2% to $2.61 per million British thermal units, respectively.
Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.
