By Biman Mukherji
HONG KONG--Oil prices fell on Friday as news of solid U.S
economic growth bolstered the dollar.
While the positive U.S economic data tends to be positive for
oil over the longer run, it also increases dollar's value, which in
the short-term tends to push down oil prices.
"The dollar effect is usually very short and unlikely to cause a
trend downwards," said Daniel Ang, an investment analyst at Phillip
Futures. "Prices are unlikely to fall much further."
Earlier this week on Tuesday, prices touched a four-month low in
the wake of a rout in Chinese stock markets that prompted concerns
about weakening demand from one of the world's largest
consumers.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures
for delivery in September traded at $48.21 a barrel at 0245 GMT,
down 31 cents in the Globex electronic session. Brent crude on
London's ICE Futures exchange fell 32 cents to $53.11 a barrel.
High international supplies have kept prices under pressure and
increased competition among producers, who are taking cost-cutting
measures. But few have ventured to cut production.
U.S crude oil inventories fell sharply this week, surprising
traders and cheering the market mildly as the data pointed to lower
oil supply.
Despite several negative economic indicators coming from China,
oil demand from the nation has held fairly steady with some
opportunistic buyers taking advantage of low prices. Indian demand
has also been fairly strong with the government looking to build a
long-term strategic reserve.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for August--the benchmark
gasoline contract--fell 0.01% to $1.8281 cents a gallon.
ICE gasoil for August changed hands at $489.5 a metric ton, down
$4.25 from Thursday's settlement.
Write to Biman Mukherji at biman.mukherji@dowjones.com