(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil moved down below $81 Tuesday morning, even as tension escalated in Korean peninsula after North Korea fired artillery shells at a South Korean island. Also, concerns over the euro zone debt situation continued to weigh on sentiment.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for January delivery were down $0.77 to $80.97 a barrel. Yesterday, oil edged down amid fears that bond vigilantes will quickly turn against other debt-ridden euro zone nations.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar was holding on to its overnight gains versus the euro, despite a positive reading on the euro zone PMI. . The buck was relatively flat against sterling, while struggling for direction versus the yen. Euro zone composite PMI rose to a three-month high of 55.4 in November from 53.8 in October, according to a flash report from Markit Economics. Economists had forecast a decline to 53.6.
Today, traders will look to the preliminary estimates on third quarter GDP and existing home sales data from the U.S. due out later today. Economists expect GDP growth to be upwardly revised to 2.4% from an earlier estimate of 2.0% and estimate the existing home sales to come in at 4.42 million for the month.
After the markets close today, industry body the API will release its weekly report on U.S. crude oil inventories. Analysts expect crude oil inventories to decline by 2.3 million barrels in the week ended November 19.
