Oil Futures Pull Back Following Production Gains

Oil futures fell 1% in Asian trading on Friday, extending a late-day selloff in the U.S. amid concerns about rising oil production.

Data on Thursday showed average daily U.S. output rebounded toward recent record highs last week, while December's average among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries edged higher from November.

With oil prices hitting a series of three-year highs recently, "the market is concerned about further rapid response from U.S. producers," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets.

February light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently down 1.2% at $63.19 a barrel in the Globex trading session. March Brent fell 1% to $68.61.

"I think over the next month or so the weak patch in consumption will open up the prospect of a pullback in prices," said Daniel Hynes, commodities analyst for ANZ Bank. "But it may not be significant."

Friday's fall in prices was stemmed a bit in Asia by fresh weakness in the U.S. dollar. Greenback weakness the past month helped push the WTI benchmark in the U.S. up in 17 days out of 22 through Wednesday and Brent higher in 17 of 21 days.

"The market appears a bit overextended after a 30% rally, with barely a move lower, over the past three months," said Rob Haworth, a senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.

Write to Biman Mukherji at biman.mukherji@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 19, 2018 00:04 ET (05:04 GMT)