Sharjah24 – Reuters: Oil prices dropped on Monday, extending last week's losses after the U.S. dollar jumped to a three-week high and the U.S. rig count rose, although nearly a quarter of U.S. Gulf of Mexico output stayed offline in the wake of two hurricanes.
Brent crude futures fell 61 cents, or 0.8%, to $74.73 a barrel at 0650 GMT after losing 33 cents on Friday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 66 cents, or 0.9%, to $71.31 a barrel, after declining 64 cents on Friday.
"Strength in the USD over the last couple of days has provided some headwinds to the market," researchers at ING Bank said in a note on Monday.
Oil fell with the greenback near a three-week high following a rally on Friday on better-than-expected U.S. retail sales data. That bolstered expectations for the U.S. Federal Reserve to begin reducing asset purchases later this year.
"WTI crude may consolidate over the next few trading sessions until the trajectory of the dollar is a little clearer," OANDA analyst Edward Moya said in a note.
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