World : Oil rallies in choppy trade; dollar, stocks dip

NEW YORK : Crude futures rallied in choppy trading on Monday ahead of an OPEC meeting later in the week that could reap production cuts, while the U.S. dollar recovered from earlier losses but was still slightly lower.

The dollar index .DXY dipped 0.08 percent after having fallen as much as 0.8 percent. The U.S. currency sank as much as 1.6 percent against the yen, going as low as 111.32 yen JPY= before recovering to 112.3.

Most analysts said the dip in the dollar since Friday was simply a corrective pullback with the greenback still on track for its strongest two-month gain since early 2015.

“It looks much more like a correction than anything else – a Monday morning clearing of the decks before the end of the month,” said Societe Generale macro strategist Kit Juckes in London.

The euro was little changed versus the greenback after having gained nearly 1 percent to $ 1.0684 as it got a lift from the election of Francois Fillon as the center-right candidate in next year’s French presidential election. It was last at $ 1.0582 EUR=.

Fillon, a former French prime minister, is favorite to become president, with a flash opinion poll suggesting he would easily beat far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen in a second round run-off. Markets worry that Le Pen, who has promised a referendum on membership of the European Union if she wins, would threaten the future of the currency bloc.

On Wall Street, consumer and financial stocks weighed on the S&P 500 after rallying last week. Recently battered stocks in utilities and telecom services posted the largest gains.

“The absence of major economic news today offers investors a chance to take some light profit taking ahead of a barrage of macro news and the OPEC meeting,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets on Wednesday, while a week heavy in U.S. economic data including a GDP revision, inflation, factory and services activity is set to climax on Friday with the monthly jobs report.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 44.64 points, or 0.23 percent, to 19,107.5, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 5.6 points, or 0.25 percent, to 2,207.75 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 13.49 points, or 0.25 percent, to 5,385.43.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 fell 0.85 percent, while MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS fell 0.16 percent.

Emerging market stocks rose 0.9 percent.

Asian shares .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.5 percent overnight led by gains in Hong Kong .HSI and Taiwan .TWII, though Japan’s Nikkei .N225 ended down 0.1 percent.

Oil prices jumped in volatile trading after falling as much as 2 percent, recouping losses as the market reacted to the shaky prospect of major producers being able to agree output cuts later this week.

U.S. crude CLc1 last rose 2.5 percent to $ 47.23 a barrel and Brent LCOc1 traded at $ 48.42, up 2.5 percent on the day.

Industrial metals also remained red hot on hopes of strong demand for property and infrastructure investment in China and the United States. Chinese steel futures SRBcv1 jumped nearly 6 percent.[MET/L]

Spot gold XAU= rose 0.7 percent to $ 1,191.15 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 added 1.0 percent to $ 1,190.70 an ounce.

Copper CMCU3 reversed earlier gains to drop 0.4 percent to $ 5,856.00 a tonne.

In the bond market, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield US10YT=RR hit a session low at 2.312 percent. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 12/32 in price to yield 2.3267 percent.

U.S. Treasury yields fell from last week’s multi-month or multi-year highs on month-end buying and views that the selloff that followed the surprise U.S. presidential election victory of Donald Trump earlier this month may have gone too far.