Oil held steady Tuesday in Asia as a weaker dollar and renewed buying interest helped support prices after a plunge of nearly US$4 in the previous session, the Associated Press reported. Late afternoon in Singapore, light, sweet crude for August delivery was up 18 cents at US$141.55 a barrel in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell US$3.92, or about 2.7 percent, to settle at US$141.37 in New York on Monday. Oil hit a trading record of US$145.85 on Thursday before settling at a record close of US$145.29 a barrel. There was no floor trade in the U.S. on Friday due to the July Fourth holiday. In Asian currency trade, the dollar was weaker against the euro and yen compared with values seen Monday in New York. The euro was holding at US$1.5736, while the dollar was buying about 106.40 yen. In other Nymex trade, heating oil futures fell 0.19 cent to US$3.9677 a gallon (3.8 liters) while gasoline futures dropped 0.56 cent to US$3.4771 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell 6.2 cents to US$12.915 per 1,000 cubic feet. August Brent crude rose 21 cents to US$142.11 barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
