By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Oil futures extended losses in electronic trading Thursday, matching falls across commodity and equity markets on the eve of a highly-awaited meeting of central bankers.
Oil for October delivery CLV2 -0.19% dropped 56 cents, or 0.6%, to $95.49 during Asian trading hours.
The falls add to losses notched in Wednesday’s regular New York Mercantile Exchange session following a surprise rise in U.S. oil inventories, and as Tropical Storm Isaac appeared to spare oil-refining hubs in the Gulf of Mexico from damage.
Isaac was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm Wednesday after making landfall in Louisiana. Read more on Tropical Storm Isaac.
But flooding in the wake of the slow-moving storm still posed threats to refinery operations, analysts at J.P. Morgan wrote in a note.
Caution continued to taint the mood across commodity and equity markets, as traders looked ahead to a gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Friday.
“Crude is also falling as investors reassess their expectations for this week’s Jackson Hole economic symposium,” David Morrison, GFT Markets strategist, wrote in a note to clients.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was slated to deliver what was likely the most-anticipated speech of the meeting on Friday.
“The likelihood that Bernanke will hint at further quantitative easing is diminishing,” Morrison said.
As crude lost ground, other energy futures were little changed ahead of the Bernanke speech, with September gasoline RBU2 +0.38% steady at $3.10 a gallon, and September heating oil HOU2 +0.42% up fractionally at $3.12 a gallon.
September natural-gas futures NGU2 +0.42% traded at $2.62 per million British thermal units.
Virginia Harrison is a MarketWatch reporter based in Sydney.
