London (Platts)--8Oct2009/655 am EDT/1055 GMT

Crude futures pushed higher in European morning trading Thursday as the US dollar came under further selling pressure, with the ICE Dollar Index trading down to its lowest level since September 23.

"The crude complex is higher on non-oil news. We're seeing a counter-reaction to yesterday's levels following the US inventory statistics, but much of the upward momentum is attributable to the currency markets, specifically the US dollar," a London-based broker said.

At 1028 GMT front-month ICE Brent traded at $67.96/barrel, a $0.76 rise. The NYMEX WTI contract meanwhile added $0.73 to Wednesday's close, trading at $70.30/barrel. The ICE Dollar Index continued its descent, touching an intra-day low of 75.900.

However, the correlation between a weaker dollar and stronger crude values appears less pronounced than in August, when the WTI contract traded up to $75/barrel.

"The price action we've seen in the dollar over the last few days hasn't led to a similar rebound in WTI. The correlation is underperforming when compared with the price move seen on the August WTI contract," technical analyst Stephanie Aymes of Societe Generale said.

Aymes cited $69.30-70.30/b as a technical resistance level for the ICE Brent contract, with $71.85/b earmarked as a key resistance level for the NYMEX WTI contract.

"I imagine the market will edge lower in the short term. However, if the November WTI contract breaks the through the $71.85/b level, the market will certainly go higher, retracing levels seen in August," Aymes said, citing further resistance levels at the $73.60-74.40/b for the WTI benchmark.

Gold, meanwhile, traded at an all-time high of $1,058.48/oz Thursday, surpassing the previous record high of $1,048.43/oz on Wednesday, as the sliding dollar has made it cheaper for investors holding other currencies and boosted demand.

--George Johnson, george_johnson@platts.com