Oil prices fall

Reuters

Singapore

Oil prices fell on Friday, dragged down by a surging dollar and sliding Chinese commodities which at least temporarily outweighed crude supply disruptions in Canada as a result of a massive wildfire threatening its huge oil sands operations.

The dollar firmed against the euro and yen on Friday ahead of the April U.S. nonfarm payrolls due later in the day that could support the greenback.

Traders said that a broad sell-off in China´s commodities market, which turned a recent rally into a slide, was also weighing on oil during Asian trading hours.

This week´s stronger dollar halted an almost 7 percent fall against a basket of other leading currencies since January.

A strong dollar can reduce demand for oil as it makes the dollar-traded commodity more expensive for buyers using other currencies.

International benchmark Brent crude futures were trading at $44.75 per barrel at 06.45 GMT, 26 cents below their last settlement.