FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - While a slew of conflicting macroeconomic data arrives from the US, crude futures remain weighed near daily lows. The front-month crude contract in particular shows losses of about 1.0% since open while trading at $75.27 a barrel at time of writing.
While both the US initial jobless claims over the week and PPI report in August showed glimmers of improvement, the Philly Fed manufacturing index instead had business activity slowing in the metropolitan area. The mixed data fails to relieve concerns of a sluggish US recovery, and has risk sentiment markedly lower Thursday.
Crude futures in particular are weighed by the lack of risk appetite, as well as the agreement by US regulators to re-open the Enbridge pipeline. The Canadian-US pipeline has been shut down over the week due to an undisclosed leak which had commodity traders initially optimistic that it might help with the particularly high US crude stockpiles as of late.
