crude futures

Oil prices were steady around $58 a barrel Friday in Asia after rising overnight as traders took their cue from a jump in global stock markets.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down 24 cents to $58.00 a barrel, after rising as high as $59.96 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Singapore.

The crude futures contract overnight rose $2.08 to settle at $58.24 after dipping to $54.67, a price last seen in January 2007.

U.S. oil futures fell more than $3, dropping below $112 a barrel to a 15-week low as the dollar rallied broadly on growing concerns about sliding demand.

Oil prices remained near record highs above $145 a barrel in Asia after Saudi Arabia's oil minister suggested his country doesn't plan to boost production.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery was up 23 cents at $145.52 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midafternoon in Singapore.

Crude futures rose to $145.85, a record high, in New York on Thursday before settling at a record finish of $145.29 a barrel.

Oil prices have risen more than 50 percent so far this year.

Oil prices rose Friday after dropping sharply in the previous session on concerns that an increase in Chinese fuel prices would dampen oil demand in the booming Asian nation.

Crude futures had dropped nearly $5 a barrel on Thursday after China said it will raise prices for gasoline and diesel fuel 16 percent and 18 percent, respectively, beginning Friday.

Oil prices dropped Monday, retreating from a record surge late last week, and traders said the market would remain choppy amid jitters about supplies, growing global demand and a weak dollar.

Crude futures made their biggest single-day jump ever Friday, soaring nearly $11 for the day to $138.54 a barrel, a rise of more than 8 percent that battered stocks on Wall Street.

That came after an increase Thursday of almost $5.50, taking oil futures more than 13 percent higher in just two days, easily a record on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Oil prices hit a record above $135 a barrel before falling back in Asia Thursday, with supply worries, rising global demand and a slumping dollar keeping crude futures on an upward track.

"It's not going to be zero (per cent), it's not going to be a half (per cent)"

Another jump in the U.S. dollar sent oil prices below US$111 a barrel Thursday as speculators who drove crude futures to nearly $120 pulled out of the market. via CBC News

"We're seeing a little bit of ... selling on the back of a firmer U.S. dollar and concerns that the dollar will maybe rebound mildly in the short term"

Oil prices fell Tuesday amid expectations that a supply disruption in the U.K. would soon be resolved and as the U.S. dollar strengthened further against the euro.

As crude futures pushed to an inflation adjusted, all-time high of $103.95 a barrel this week, a measure to shift about $18 billion in tax credits for the U.S. petroleum industry to wind and solar energy landed in the U.S.

Senate.