RTTN: Crude Near $76 As OPEC Warns On Supply Overhang
(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil was little changed Friday morning ahead of official data on US inflation and retail sales.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for September delivery edged up $0.04 to $75.78 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled at its monthly low of below $76 prompted by an unexpected increase in the U.S. jobless claims that pressured equities.
OPEC on Friday revised upwards its 2010 world oil demand growth estimate to 1.2% or 1.05 million barrels per day, or bpd. Total demand for 2010 was now expected to reach 85.5 million bpd, up from 84.46 million bpd in 2009.
However, the cartel warned about supply overhang and slow demand in the second half of 2010 and did not revise its 2011 forecast.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar was hovering near its 3-week high versus the euro and continued to retreat from its 6-month low against the British pound. The buck was lingering around its 1995-lows versus the yen.
Euro zone GDP grew at a faster pace of 1% sequentially in the second quarter, following a 0.2% rise in the first quarter, flash estimates published by Eurostat showed. Economists had expected only 0.7% rise. Earlier today, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed that the German economy, the largest in the euro zone, expanded 2.2% sequentially in the second quarter.
Traders will look to Consumer Price Index and Retail Sales data from the U.S., due out later today, to get clues on the direction of the market. Economists expect CPI to edge up a 0.2%, compared with a 0.1% decrease in June. Economists expect a 0.5% rise in July sales compared with a 0.5% drop in June.
