Forexpros – bsp;- Crude oil futures experienced a technical bounce from near six week lows early Friday, despite the fundamental picture remaining bearish.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for January settlement traded at USD94.38 a barrel during mid European trade advancing 0.55%.
It earlier hit a daily high of USD94.78 a barrel.
Weakness in the U.S. dollar added to the bullish crude price environment.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, gave back 0.36%% to trade at 80.67.
Dollar weakness generally lifts commodity prices, as it increases their appeal as an alternative asset and makes dollar priced commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies.
Shrinking industrial production in the U.S. combined with European contracting manufacturing numbers paint a continued fundamentally bearish picture for the commodity.
Oil plunged 5.6% over the last week after OPEC agreed to increase production and the International Energy Agency slashed its demand forecast.
In addition, never ending worries about the future of the European Union continue to weigh heavily on the oil market, per analyst Myrto Sokou in a Bloomberg article.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for February delivery advanced 0.56% to trade at USD104.20 a barrel, up USD9.82 on its U.S. Counterpart.
This nearly USD10.00 spread has been narrowing recently, but is still historically high. The two contracts traditionally trade within USD1.00 of each other.
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