RTTN: Crude Little Changed Ahead Of Weekly Jobs Data
(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil was steady above $86 Thursday morning as traders await cues from today's economic data from the U.S.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for January delivery edged up $0.02 to $86.77 a barrel. Yesterday, oil moved up over 3% after China reported strong manufacturing growth in November.
Wednesday during trading hours, the EIA revealed that U.S. crude oil inventories were up by 1.1 million barrels and gasoline inventories increased by 600,000 barrels in the week ended November 26. Analysts were expecting crude oil inventories to decline by 1.1 million barrels.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar continued to pare some of its recent gains versus the euro, while hovering near its 2-month high against sterling. The buck was trading relatively flat versus the Swiss Franc and the yen. The euro remained firm amid hopes that the European Central Bank will boost its efforts to support the euro zone economy.
In its today's meeting, the ECB has left it rates unchanged at 1%, as widely expected.
Today's focus will be on weekly jobless claims and pending home sales data from the U.S, due out later during the session.
Economists expect jobless claims to increase to 425,000 from 407,000 reported for the previous week and see pending home sales remain unchanged from the previous month.
