Commodities: Oil futures rise on the back of geopolitical risk
Oil futures were buoyed on Thursday by reports that Saudi Arabia had restarted air attacks against Houthi rebel positions in Yemen.
Front month West Texas crude futures rose by $1.46 to finish the session at $57.74 per barrel on the NYMEX.
The US dollar ended the day lower on the back of the positive newsflow surrounding the Greek debt negotiations, which sent yields on that country´s three-year bonds promptly lower.
News that US new home sales dropped by 11.4% month-on-month to reach an annualised rate of 481,000 in March (consensus: 515,000) also did their bit.
In turn, gold futures for June delivery gained $20.9 to close at $1,176.50 per ounce in COMEX trading.
Nevertheless, the flow of data from Europe was not much better. The Eurozone´s manufacturing sector purchasing managers´ index (PMI) for April slipped to a level of 51.9 from 52.8 in the prior month (consensus: 53).