Oil Futures Pull Back As U.S. Dollar Firms Up

Crude-oil futures on Wednesday retreated from their highest level in more than two months, as a firmer dollar and weakness in U.S. stock-index futures weighed on the commodity.

Benchmark U.S. September crude-oil futures CLU2 slipped 38 cents, or 0.4%, to $93.29 a barrel on Globex by late morning in Hong Kong.

The front-month contract, which gained $1.47 overnight on the New York Mercantile Exchange, is still up about 6% so far this month.

Tuesday’s gains for the commodity followed comments from Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren — a non-voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee — that he was open to more easing earlier this summer. Read more on comments from Fed’s Rosengren.

The drop in Wednesday’s trading came as the ICE dollar index DXY, a measure of the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, climbed to 82.284 from 82.216 in North America late Tuesday.

A stronger dollar weighs on commodities that are benchmarked in the greenback, as it makes them more expensive to holders of other currencies.

U.S. equity futures were mildly lower in Asia, after stocks on Wall Street completed a three-day winning streak Tuesday.

Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA futures shed 20 points, or 0.2%, to 13,099. S&P 500 Index SPX futures dropped 0.2% to 1,394.70, while Nasdaq 100 NDX futures were fractionally lower at 2,709.50.

Elsewhere in the energy complex, September gasoline futures RBU2 fell 0.4% to $2.98 a gallon, and heating-oil futures HOU2 for delivery in the same month gave up 0.5% to $2.98 per gallon.

September natural-gas futures NGU12 dropped 0.2% to $2.96 per million British thermal units.

Marketwatch