After wild price swings in recent sessions, crude-oil futures took it slow in electronic trading early Friday, with both the New York and London benchmarks making relatively moderate gains.
New York Mercantile Exchange-traded February crude CLG5, +0.32% improved by 0.5% to $56.11 a barrel on Globex, clawing back a bit of its 2.2% drubbing Wednesday when the market was heading into the Christmas holiday.
London-traded Brent North Sea crude for February LCOG5, +0.13% also added 0.5% to trade at $60.54 a barrel after taking a 2.4% loss Wednesday.
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The dollar was lower against the yen in quiet holiday trading on Thursday, with profit-taking trimming the greenback's gains from earlier this week.
The dollar moved in an extremely tight Y104.25-Y104.49 range on Dec. 25 and in a Y84.60-Y84.96 range on Christmas Day in 2012.
The dollar fell to as low as Y120.06 at midday but the downside remained well supported.
"With a lack of fresh cues, the dollar will continue to lack the momentum to test its upside," said Mizuho's Mr. Yoshii, adding that the greenback will likely move in a Y119-Y121 over the short term.
In other currency trading, the euro was at $1.2218 from $1.2203 and at Y146.73 from Y147.15.
The WSJ Dollar Index, a measure of the dollar against a basket of major currencies, was down 0.15% at 82.59.
Tokyo (Nikkei Average) down 0.1%
Hong Kong (Hang Seng Index) closed for holiday
Shanghai (Shanghai Composite Index) up 1.2% (at break)
Sydney (S&P/ASX 200) closed for holiday
Seoul (Kospi) up 0.3%
Mumbai (Sensex) up 0.4%
Taipei (Taiex) up 0.2%
