Oil prices trading just under $80 on US dollar lows

Oil prices are trading higher on Monday as the US dollar continued to test new lows against other currencies. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark US Light crude oil futures for December delivery was up $1.17 to $78.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the NYMEX, while Brent crude oil futures for December delivery rose $1.11 to $76.98 on the ICE Futures exchange.

The US dollar which has moved inversely to oil prices for months as investors buy commodities including gold and oil as a hedge against inflation and a weaker US currency. Oil rose to $82 last month, its 2009 high, from $32 in December and gold prices are hitting new all time record highs today over $1100 per ounce.

The euro rose to $1.4984 in European trading Monday from $1.4885 on Friday and the British pound also rose to $1.6795 from $1.6602, while the US dollar fell to 89.86 Japanese yen from 89.93 yen.

The dismal jobless data stirred concerns that US consumer demand will remain sluggish despite signs pointing to an economic recovery, while analysts remained skeptical about the rise of crude oil trading prices in the past months.

Tags:  oil prices, oil trading, US dollar