(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil was paring previous session's gains Tuesday morning amid lingering worries over demand growth.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for May delivery, eased $0.73 to $104.50 a barrel. Yesterday, crude bounced back from a 6-week low, gaining over 2 percent, on some positive U.S. economic data on manufacturing sector activity, while the dollar turned lower paring early gains against a basket of major currencies.
This morning, the U.S. dollar continued to trade flat versus the euro, while ticking higher against sterling. The buck was edging higher versus the yen, after falling heavily in the previous session amid expectations for further monetary easing by the Bank of Japan to boost economic growth.
In economic news, euro zone producer price inflation eased to 3.6 percent year-on-year in February from a revised 3.8 percent in January, Eurostat said. The inflation rate, nonetheless, stayed above the consensus forecast of 3.5 percent. On a monthly basis, the industrial producer price index climbed 0.6 percent, following a 0.8 percent gain in January. Economists were expecting an increase of 0.5 percent.
Traders will look to the Commerce Department's report on factory goods orders for February, due out at 10 a.m. ET. Economists estimate a 1.5 percent increase in orders for factory goods following a 1 percent drop in the previous month. Durable goods orders, which make up the bulk of factory goods, rose by a less than expected 2.2 percent in February compared to the previous month.
The Federal Reserve is due to release the minutes of its March 13 meeting at 2 p.m. ET.
Today after the market hours, the API will come out with its report on US crude oil inventories for the weekended March 30.
