RTTN: Crude Slips To 3-week Low Amid Demand Worries
(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil moved down Thursday morning amid demand concerns after official data revealed pile up in U.S crude oil inventories.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for June delivery were down $2.85 to $106.39 a barrel. Yesterday, oil extended losses to shed nearly 4 percent in the past two sessions.
Wednesday's data from the EIA revealed that U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 3.40 million barrels, while gasoline stocks dipped by 1.0 million barrels in the week ended April 29. Analysts were expecting crude oil inventories to increase by 2.0 million barrels and gasoline stocks are seen moving up by 300,000 barrels last week.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was struggling for direction versus the euro, ahead of the ECB's rate decision and trading flat against the sterling, the Swiss franc and the yen.
The Bank of England today left its key interest rate unchanged at a historic low again as expected and maintained the size of the quantitative easing at GBP 200 billion and the ECB is likely to maintain rates today.
Traders will look to the U.S. Labor Department's report on weekly jobless claims. Economists expect claims to have declined modestly to 410,000.
