Friday, Feb 10, 2012
By Surabhi Sahu
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Crude-oil futures slipped in Asia Friday after some investors booked profits ahead of the weekend amid investor caution ahead of a key Europe finance ministers' next week that will decide on a second bailout package for Greece.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $99.56 a barrel at 0735 GMT, down $0.28 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.61 to $117.98 a barrel.
The initial euphoria of Thursday, when Greek leaders agreed to austerity measures demanded by European nations, has waned, a Tokyo-based trading executive said.
All eyes are on a vote by the Greek Parliament, likely Sunday, on meeting the austerity package conditions, he said.
"The macroeconomic factor remains deserving of a bullish checkmark," Jim Ritterbusch at Ritterbusch & Associates said in a note. "Although the Greek debt package remains a bit nebulous, the strength in the euro cannot be denied as a bullish consideration to both crude benchmarks." He tipped the WTI-Brent spread to rebound to the $20-a-barrel level.
Threats of supply cuts by Iran and political unrest in Nigeria will likely support ICE brent prices, Phillip Futures commodities analyst Ker Chung Yang said, adding that the European benchmark could push towards $120 a barrel on supply risks.
WTI will likely "benefit from resumed crude market tightness on a six-month profile as demand picks up seasonally towards the third quarter," Standard Chartered said in a report. It expects the U.S. benchmark to average $105 a barrel in the second quarter and $113 in the third, compared with its forecast first-quarter average of $95.
In other news, crude imports by no. 2 oil consumer China reached about 5.54 million barrels a day in January, preliminary data from the General Administration of Customs showed Friday. This translates to a 7.4% rise from a year ago and 6.8% from December, according to Dow Jones Newswires' calculations.
But traders paid little heed to this data, instead maintaining focus on euro-zone debt issues.
"Greece will be the main driver in the coming days," a Singapore-based trader said.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for March--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 58 points to $3.0070 a gallon, while March heating oil traded at $3.2051, 34 points lower.
ICE gasoil for February changed hands at $1000.25 a metric ton, up $2.50 from Thursday's settlement.
-By Surabhi Sahu, Dow Jones Newswires; +65 6415 4086; surabhi.sahu@dowjones.com
-- Wayne Ma in Beijing contributed to this article.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 10, 2012 02:42 ET (07:42 GMT)
