Crude extends gains on North Sea snag, weaker dollar
Published Jun 04, 2013 12:24PM ET
A weaker greenback tends to make oil a nicely priced asset in dollar-denominated exchanges, especially in the eyes of investors holding other currencies.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded up 0.68% at USD94.09 a barrel on Tuesday, off from a session high of USD94.39 and up from an earlier session low of USD92.39.
The Commerce Department reported earlier that the U.S. trade gap widened 8.5% in April to USD40.3 billion from USD37.8 billion in March, though the figure did come in below estimates for a USD41 billion deficit.
U.S. imports rose 2.4% in April to USD227.7 billion, while exports increased 1.2% to USD187.4 billion.
The news weakened the dollar earlier, which made oil an attractive buy.
While the greenback reversed those losses by afternoon trading on Tuesday, oil held onto its gains on reports of supply snags in the North Sea.
Platform operator Nexen reported on Monday that equipment failure will cut output in the Buzzard oilfield until later this week.
On the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for July delivery were up 1.32% at USD103.41 a barrel, up USD9.32 from its U.S. counterpart.
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Written By: Investing.com
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