Oil Futures Fall As Dollar Rises

Oil futures fell in electronic trade Tuesday, giving back some of their gains from the previous day as the U.S. dollar moved higher.

Benchmark U.S. crude futures for December  lost 28 cents, or 0.3%, to $94.86 a barrel, after posting a 54-cent gain Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Rival December Brent crude  retreated 26 cents, or 0.2%, to $106.14 a barrel.

The ICE dollar index

rose to 81.223 from 81.075 late Monday — a rising dollar makes oil more expensive to holders of other currencies, often dampening demand.

The market was due to receive a monthly report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) later in the day.

“In addition to any shift in the demand prospects, the market will also be interested in OPEC production estimates. These have tended to feature both an upward revision to the prior month, along with a new down-tick. We’ll see if Tuesday’s report follows the prior pattern,” wrote Citi Futures strategist Timothy Evans late Monday.

Oil’s moves also came ahead of weekly U.S. supply data from the American Petroleum Institute, due out Wednesday, a day later than usual because of the Veterans Day holiday.

A Platts survey of oil analysts projected a 1.8-million-barrel rise in U.S. crude inventories for the week ended Nov. 8, while gasoline stocks were forecast to fall by 1.2 million barrels.

Among other energy futures, December gasoline  held steady at $2.60 a gallon, while January natural gas   lost a penny, or 0.3%, to $3.61 per million British thermal units.

Source : Marketwatch