Natural gas futures also extended their decline after finishing at a seven-year low in New York on concerns about rising supplies. Benchmark Nymex crude futures for October delivery dropped 75 cents to $72.16 a barrel in early Asian afternoon trade on Globex, unable to hold on to early gains. The new front-month contract, which ended 92 cents lower on the New York Mercantile Exchange, had hit a high of $73.24 a barrel earlier in the day. The September contract ended 12 cents higher at $72.54 a barrel and expired overnight September natural-gas futures, meanwhile, were down 2.4 cents at $2.921 per million British thermal units on Globex. The contract slumped 17.40 cents or 5.6%, to end at $2.945 per mbtu on the Nymex, after the Energy Information Administration reported that working gas in storage rose 52 billion cubic feet to 3,204 bcf during the week ended Aug. 14. See full story. The dollar index (DXY 78.53, +0.15, +0.19%) , which tracks the U.S. dollar against a trade-weighted basked of six major currencies, recently rose 0.2% to 78.51. In Asian stock markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 Average fell 2.1% to 10,168.04, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gave up 1.6%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 2.2%, India's Sensex slid 0.8%, and China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.7% at the end of the morning trading session.

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