(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil was extending gains Thursday morning as the euro surged higher following ECB governor Mario Draghi's comments.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for September delivery, edged up $0.25 to $89.22 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled higher on bargain buying with a weak dollar and some positive news emerging from the euro zone. Oil prices were down for most of the day after a report from the Energy Information Administration showed a significant increase in U.S. crude stockpile.
Wednesday during trading hours, the EIA said U.S. crude oil inventories moved up 2.70 million barrels and gasoline stocks surged 4.10 million barrels in the weekended July 20. Analysts expected crude oil inventories to ease 250,000 barrels and gasoline stocks to shed 750,000 barrels last week.
This morning, the U.S. dollar continued to level off from its 2-year high versus the euro, while hovering near a two-week high against sterling. The buck was lingering near a two-month low versus the yen and slipped near a weekly low against the Swiss franc.
The euro surged higher amid reports that European Central Bank governor Mario Draghi, in a speech at the Global Investment Conference, vowed that the central bank will do whatever is needed to preserve the euro.
In economic news from the euro zone, German consumer confidence is set to rise modestly in August despite the growing tensions surrounding the Eurozone's economic prospects, a survey by Market research group GfK revealed. GfK's consumer confidence index for August rose to 5.9 from 5.8 in July. Economists expected the index to remain at the July level.
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 claims to edge down to 380,000 in the recent reporting week from 386,000 in the previous week.
Simultaneously, the Commerce Department is set to release its durable goods orders report. Economists expect a 0.6 percent increase in durable goods orders for June following a 1.3 percent increase in the previous months. Excluding transportation, orders may have risen 0.2 percent.
Later during the session, data on pending home sales, which is a leading indicator of housing market activity will be released by the National Association of Realtors. The index is expected to have risen 0.9 percent in June, slower than the 5.9 percent increase in the previous month.
