Crude  oil  futures  were  lower  during  mid-morning trade in Asia Friday on profit-taking. A 

stronger US dollar has also suppressed prices from moving higher, market participants said. 

At 10:27 am Singapore time (0227 GMT), June ICE Brent crude futures fell 21 cents/b (0.28%

) from Thursday's settle to $74.53/b, while the June NYMEX light sweet crude contract dipped 

20 cents/b (0.29%) to $67.99/b. 

While  the  focus of the market remains US President Donald Trump's stance on the US-Iran 

nuclear deal, investors saw fit to lock in profits ahead of the weekend, industry sources said. 

"Geopolitical events have been the main driver of the recent bull in prices," Vishnu Varathan, 

senior economist at Mizuho Bank, said. 

"There is uncertainty stemming from demand [as seen in the crude builds from the US Energ

y Information Administration data], and the wider market is waiting to see the impact of higher 

crude oil production from the US," Varathan added, saying that it is a nice level to take profit 

ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting next week. Market participants have 

also  attributed  the  dip  in  prices  to a stronger US dollar. A stronger US currency denotes 

weaker  commodity  prices  as  many commodities, such as crude oil, are priced against the 

dollar, making procurement more costly. The net impact is typically seen as bearish. 

"US dollar has surged quite a bit in the last week or so due to expectations of a rising US bo

nd  yield  and  it  has  caught the market off guard," said Janu Chan, senior economist at St 

George bank. 

Some however, felt that the dip in prices during mid-morning trade in Asia Friday is negligible 

as supply concerns and geopolitical events will provide a floor to crude oil prices. 

"We  should  not  be  too  concerned  about  the  minute  profit-taking  in  the  morning," said 

Barnabas Gan, commodity economist at OCBC Bank. 

"There are more news coming out of Venezuela indicating that their economic problems are 

to stay, and crude production from Venezuela will not resume in [the] near term," Gan added. 

On  near  to  mid term outlook, Gan remained cautious over the recent rally in prices, saying 

that it was supported by speculations as seen from the uptick in open interest from the CFT

C data.