MW: OIL FUTURES: Bulls Push Oil Higher In Asia Amid Weaker Dollar
SINGAPORE (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures rose in Asia Monday amid light trading, as bulls continued to ride the momentum resulting from a weaker dollar and petroleum inventory drawdowns.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February traded at $78.24 a barrel at 0741 GMT, up 19 cents in the Globex electronic session. February Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose 37 cents to $76.68 a barrel.
Last week, the February contract closed up $3.66 at $78.05 a barrel before Christmas. Bulls are expected to push the price even higher, as more traders are heading for holidays ahead of the new year.
Traders seeking long positions are taking advantage of a weakening dollar and earlier bullish inventories data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, according to analysts.
Oil today again took cues from the currency market and this trend will likely continue through the week, said Geoff Howie, senior vice president with MF Global Singapore. "The U.S. dollar will have a strong influence on oil this week."
The Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, was at 77.67, off its intra-session peak of 77.72.
Meanwhile, U.S. official data may again show a fall in inventories later this week, supporting the bulls' argument, said Clarence Chu, a Singapore-based trader at Hudson Capital.
Figures released by the U.S. Department of Energy showed a fall of 4.84 million barrels to 327.55 million barrels of crude oil for the week ended Dec. 18, more than four times the decline analysts had expected.
The data will likely serve as a good excuse for bulls, who are aiming for higher oil prices next year and are likely to succeed as they are more organized than the bears, according to a research note of Jim Ritterbusch, president of advisor Ritterbusch & Associates.
They have "another chance to assault the $82 level and possibly even break it," he added.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for January -- the benchmark gasoline contract -- rose 157 points to 200.53 cents a gallon, while January heating oil traded at 205.62 cents, 206 points higher.
ICE gasoil for January changed hands at $622.00 a metric ton, up $15.00 from last settlement.
