Crude oil futures remained lower Friday in Asia in relatively thin trade, amid lingering concerns over the euro zone's economic health, and with the market subdued ahead of the weekend and awaiting U.S. retail sales data due later in the day.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June traded at $73.72 a barrel at 0610 GMT, down $0.68 in the Globex electronic session. June Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.47 to $79.64 a barrel.
Crude opened lower in Asia, extending the 1.7% loss it suffered overnight, due to a stronger dollar and a fall in share prices caused by the unclear outlook for euro-zone economies.
"There is still much confusion and uncertainty about what just took place in the European Union," and the large bailout by the EU and the International Monetary Fund, Mike Sander of investment advisory Sander Capital said in a note to investors.
"Many traders are on the sidelines," taking a wait-and-see stance regarding developments in the euro zone, Koichiro Kamei, senior analyst at the Market Strategy Institute in Tokyo, said.
The euro's weakness against the dollar is likely to persist for some time given the economic problems engulfing Spain, Portugal, which might spread to other parts of the world.
For the market, the next focus is U.S. retail sales data due later Friday. But it will be "difficult to shed the concerns over the economy, unless there is a huge positive surprise," Kamei said.
On the fundamental side, U.S. crude stockpiles are at their highest levels since December, and inventories at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for Nymex crude, have risen for eight straight weeks, bringing the amount of oil in storage at the hub to 29% above year-earlier levels.
With the front-month June Nymex crude contract due to expire next week, traders have dumped the contract to avoid having to accept physical crude deliveries.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for June--the benchmark gasoline contract--fell 105 points to $2.1846 a gallon, while June heating oil traded at $2.1304, 15 points lower. Society
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