HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures fell slightly after a struggle in Asia on Tuesday, as worries about high prices and an expected increase in supplies offset potential upside from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s signal to maintain easy monetary policy.
May crude-oil prices CLK2 +0.08% were down 14 cents at $106.89 a barrel in electronic trading. The front-month contract, which wavered in a tight range, had risen as high as $107.17 earlier in the session.
Bernanke spurs markets
Markets react positively to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments on interest rates. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Bernanke’s remarks that improvement in the U.S. labor market might not be sustained boosted stocks on Wall Street Monday, in turn spurring Asian markets Tuesday. Read full story on Ben Bernanke’s speech.
But crude-oil prices inched up a modest 16 cents during the regular Monday session on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The absence of a stronger response, in line with the leg-up for equities, suggested “at least some concern that oil prices have risen enough already, at least for now,” said Timothy Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective.
The analyst also cited comments made Monday by International Energy Agency chief economist Fatih Birol that high oil prices in Europe have already started to eat into consumer spending in other areas of the economy.
”Our concern ... is that prices are at levels that dampen direct petroleum demand, whether they are sufficient to damage the overall economy or not,” Evans said.
The range-bound movements in crude came ahead of Wednesday’s closely watched U.S. weekly inventories data, which are expected to show crude-oil stocks increased by 2.3 million barrels in the week ended March 23, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey. Read preview of the oil inventories data.
The U.S. dollar also recovered some of its losses recorded Monday in the wake of Bernanke’s comments.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, May gasoline RBK2 -0.19% and heating-oil HOK2 -0.10% prices fell by 0.2% to $3.39 per gallon and by 0.1% to $3.24 per gallon, respectively.
April natural-gas futures NGJ12 -0.27% lost 0.9% to $2.21 per million British thermal units.
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