By Meeyoung Cho
SEOUL, Nov 20 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures inched up in
early Asian trading on Friday but remained near three-month lows
after a persistent supply glut has cut prices by nearly 13
percent since the start of November.
U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1
were quoted 5 cents higher at $40.59 a barrel as of 0024 GMT. It
settled down 21 cents at $40.54 on the previous session.
Front-month Brent futures for January LCOc1 previously
settled up 4 cents at $44.18 a barrel.
Crude futures have already lost around 60 percent of their
value since mid-2014 as supply exceeds demand by roughly 0.7
million to 2.5 million barrels per day to create a glut that
analysts say will last well into 2016.
Market data suggests that oil traders are preparing for
another downturn in prices by March 2016, as what is expected to
be an unusually warm winter dents demand just as Iran's
resurgent crude exports hit global markets after sanctions are
ended. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N13D2DW
"The weakness in the front end of the curve has pushed the
market to deep contango again," ANZ bank said on Friday, noting
the spread between near month futures and December 2016 contract
prices CLZ5-Z6 has hit a new record of nearly $8 a barrel.
The U.S. dollar pulled back on Thursday after four sessions
of gains and U.S. stocks edged lower in choppy trade as the
prospect that the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike interest rates
next month gained steam. MKTS/GLOB