(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil edged up Thursday morning as traders await cues from today's economic data, including housing starts and weekly jobs data.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for July delivery were up $0.52 to $95.33 a barrel. Yesterday, oil plummeted below $95, its lowest level in four months, amid concerns that U.S. weakness and a possible Greek default may derail the global recovery.
Wednesday, during trading hours, the EIA revealed U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 3.40 million barrels, while gasoline stocks moved up by 600,000 barrels in the week ended June10. Analysts were expecting crude oil stocks to dip 1.9 million barrels, while gasoline stocks to move up 1.3 million barrels.
Earlier today, the International Energy Agency, in its monthly Oil Market Report, nudged up its 2011 global oil product demand growth by 0.10 million barrels per day or mbd to 1.3 mbd.
This morning, the U.S. dollar continued to pare recent losses versus the euro, while moving to a 3-week high against sterling. The buck was ticking lower against the Swiss franc and the yen.
Traders will look to the U.S. Commerce Department's housing starts report, due out at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect a rebound in starts to 547,000 in May following a 10.6 percent month-over-month drop to 585,000 in the previous month.
Simultaneously, the Labor Department will come out with its report on jobless claims report for the week ended June 11. Economists expect claims to decline to 420,000 from the 427,000 reported in the prior week.
Later during the session, the results of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's manufacturing survey are due out. Economists expect the diffusion index of current activity to show a reading of 9 for June, an increase from 3.9 in May.
