(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil edged up Thursday morning as traders turned their attention to Germany, which is to vote on a measure to give a European bailout fund more powers to fight the debt crisis.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for November delivery, edged up $0.37 to $81.58 a barrel. Yesterday, oil shed nearly 4% after an official data revealed unexpected jump in U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories last week.
Wednesday during trading hours, the EIA revealed that U.S. crude oil inventories moved up 1.90 million barrels and gasoline stocks added 800,000 barrels in the week ended September 23. Analysts were expecting crude oil inventories to dip by 3 million barrels and gasoline stocks to ease by 500,000 barrels last week.
This morning, the U.S. dollar eased near its one-week low versus the euro and sterling. The buck was ticking lower against the Swiss franc and edging higher versus the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, economic confidence in the region declined more than expected in September, survey data from the European Commission showed today. The economic sentiment index came in at 95, down from 98.4 in August and below the consensus forecast of 96.
Traders will look to the weekly jobless claims data from the U.S. Commerce Department, due out at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists expect the claims to have edged down to 420,000 from 423,000 reported last week.
Simultaneously, the Commerce Department will come out with its second quarter GDP estimates. Economists expect GDP growth to be upwardly revised to 1.2 percent.
