(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil was steady above $86 Thursday morning as the U.S. dollar was trading weak ahead of today's economic reports, including weekly jobs data.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, edged up $0.21 to $86.50 a barrel. Yesterday, oil leveled off from its one-month high despite a surprise drop in U.S. crude inventories.
Wednesday during trading hours, the EIA revealed that U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 4.70 million barrels and gasoline stocks were down by 3.30 million barrels in the week ended October 14.
This morning, the U.S. dollar continued to pare recent gains versus the euro, sterling and the Swiss franc, while ticking higher against the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, Germany's producer price inflation remained unchanged in September, and matched economists' forecast, data released by statistical office Destatis showed. The index increased 5.5 percent year-on-year in September, unchanged from the rate of growth recorded in August. The latest growth also matched economists' expectations.
Traders will look to the weekly jobless claims data from the U.S. Labor Department, due out at 8.30 a.m. ET. Economists expect the claims to edge up to 408,000 from the last week's 404,000.
Later during the session, the National Association of Realtors will come out with its report on existing home sales for September. Economists estimate existing home sales of 4.93 million for the month after it rose to 5.03 million units in August.
