MW: Oil futures gain as U.S. dollar falls vs. rivals
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures rebounded early Friday after their decline in the previous session, as the greenback fell against other major currencies, drawing investors into the energy market.
Crude oil for December delivery gained 34 cents to $77.28 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.
Earlier in the session, it rose to an intraday high of $77.67.
"This morning, crude oil rose slightly, supported by a weaker U.S. dollar," wrote analysts at Sucden Financial Research, in a note to clients.
"However, investors could remain cautious due to high levels in crude and refinery inventories," they said.
The dollar index (DXY 75.38, -0.22, -0.29%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, was slightly weaker, fell 0.3% to 75.382, though that's above the 15-month lows of 74.77 reached earlier in the week.
The dollar and oil prices have had a strong inverse relationship in recent months; when the dollar weakens, oil prices tend to rise.
Oil futures sank 3% Thursday after government data showed weak demand and higher imports pushed up U.S. inventories last week.
Crude inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels, while analysts polled by Platts had expected an increase of 1 million barrels.
U.S. stock futures edged higher on Friday, helped by a stronger-than-forecast profit at Walt Disney (DIS 29.05, -0.24, -0.82%) . Investors are awaiting U.S. data on November consumer sentiment, October import prices and the trade gap in September.
The Energy Information Administration will release data on natural-gas inventories at 10:30 a.m. Eastern on Friday, a day later than usual because of the Veteran's Day holiday.
Analysts surveyed by Platts expect an addition of between 14 billion and 18 billion cubic feet to natural gas storage inventories for the week ended Nov. 6.
