(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil moved down Friday morning pressured by recovery in the U.S. dollar and weaknesses in Asian and European stock markets.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for June delivery were down $0.93 to 85.82 a barrel. Yesterday, oil rose above $87 on strong economic growth in China, one of the largest consuming nation. China revealed that the nation's gross domestic product grew 11.9% in the first quarter from a year earlier. Economists were expecting growth of 11.7%.
However, an unexpected jump in the weekly number of U.S. workers filing for new jobless benefit claims raised doubts over the strength of economic recovery in the world's largest energy consumer. Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department said initial jobless claims increased to 484,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 460,000. Economists were expecting jobless claims to fall to 440,000. Claims rose unexpectedly for a second week.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar was trading near its 5-day high versus the euro and was lingering around its 8-week low against the British pound. Sovereign debt issues in the euro zone continued to put pressure on the euro.
Some of today's trading action may be guided by U.S. housing starts and building permits data due out later today.
