Oil dropped on Tuesday, suffering three days of losses as a gathering pace U.S. dollar helped selling in commodity markets
Oil dropped on Tuesday, suffering three days of losses as a gathering pace U.S. dollar helped selling in commodity markets.
U.S. crude lost 60 cents falling at $100.98 a barrel adding to losses of more than $4 from Monday when funds locked in commodity profits at the end of the first quarter. Brent Petroleum slipped to $100.17 a barrel, down 13 cents.
Oil had also declined on Monday after a week of heavy strike in Iraq's oil port city of Basra ended, and workers ramped up flows on a nearby pipeline that had been damaged in a bomb attack.
Further draw backs came from greater selling in commodities, with gold, copper and wheat prices down as the dollar rebounded on better-than-expected manufacturing data out of the United States and after a report showed U.S. chain store sales rose last week.
"We look for the U.S. dollar to generally guide pricing today now that military activity in southern Iraq has subsided and most financial markets are showing some stability," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates.
Average oil futures prices leaped to the highest points the first quarter of 2008, with the average for U.S. crude up 68 percent on a year-earlier and 8 percent higher than the preceding quarter.
