(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil was ticking higher Friday morning amid hopes of stimulus measures by central banks.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for July were up $0.53 to $84.44 a barrel. Yesterday, oil ended higher on hopes that the OPEC will leave its production ceiling unchanged. While unconfirmed news reports to the OPEC stand prevail, there were also reports of pressure on Saudi Arabia to cut production to take off the pressure on oil prices. Investors also weighed oil demand ahead of the Iran oil embargo to begin July 1.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was hovering around its two-year high versus the euro and trading near a two-week low against sterling. The buck was moving lower versus the yen, while ticking higher against the Swiss franc.
In economic news, the euro area trade surplus fell to EUR 5.2 billion in April from EUR 7.5 billion in March, Eurostat said. In April 2011, the trade balance showed a deficit of EUR 4.5 billion. Meanwhile, seasonally adjusted trade surplus increased to EUR 6.2 billion in April from EUR 3.7 billion in the previous month.
Meanwhile, data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the U.K. visible trade deficit increased to a seasonally adjusted GBP 10.1 billion in April from GBP 8.7 billion in March. The deficit was well above the consensus forecast of GBP 8.5 billion.
Traders will look to the results of the New York Federal Reserve's empire state manufacturing survey, due out at 8:30 am ET. The headline general business conditions index for June is expected to come in at 13.8 compared to 17.09 in May.
