By Polya Lesova & Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures climbed on Monday to a 15-month high, as data showing a surge in Chinese crude imports and a drop in the value of the U.S. dollar drew buyers into the energy market.
Crude for February delivery hit a high of $83.88 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex, the strongest intraday level since October 2008.
The contract was last up $1.01, or 1.2%, to $83.76 a barrel.
"There is a lot of positive noise," said Eugen Weinberg, analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, commenting on the latest gains.
"We're having a weaker dollar, which is obviously helping the oil price, but we're also having stronger equities and the Chinese import data were very supportive for the whole commodity sector," he said.
Oil prices finished marginally higher on Friday, capping off a weekly gain of 4.3%.
China's imports surged 55.9% in December, while exports rose 17.7% from the same period a year ago, according to data released over the weekend.
The jump in imports was led by crude-oil shipments, which surged to a record monthly high of 21.26 million tons -- topping 5 million barrels a day. See story on China trade data.
'Big boost up'
Commodities are "getting a big boost up" from the China data, said Ben Potter, research analyst at IG Markets, pointing out that the import and export numbers "smashed expectations."
In metals, gold futures climbed by as much as $24 an ounce in electronic trade to touch their strongest intraday level in more than a month. See more on gold.
U.S. stock futures rose on the eve of fourth-quarter earnings season as confidence grew that corporate profits and the economy at large will stay on the mend. See Indications.
Also coloring the action in energy, continued weakness in the dollar provided support for crude prices. The dollar index (DXY 76.91, -0.27, -0.34%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, fell lately by 0.7% to stand at 76.907. See Currencies.
"The dollar carry trade is back on," said Christopher Ecclestone, mining strategist at Global Hunter Securities. "The liquidity is looking for the next best thing -- and it's hard assets."
Carry trades involve borrowing lower-yielding currencies, such as the dollar, and investing the funds in higher-yielding assets.
