(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil was little changed Thursday morning as the U.S. dollar was trading mixed ahead of a key central bankers' meeting at the weekend.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for October delivery, eased $0.10 to $95.39 a barrel. Yesterday, oil ended lower after Hurricane Isaac misses oil installations, hitting Louisiana and a report from EIA revealed jump in U.S. crude oil inventories.
Wednesday during trading hours, the Energy Information Administration said that U.S. crude oil inventories unexpectedly moved up by 3.80 million barrels, while gasoline stocks shed 1.50 million barrels in the weekended August 24. Analyst expected crude oil inventories to decline 2 million barrels and gasoline stocks to shed 2 million barrels last week.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was lingering near its weekly low versus the euro and trading flat against sterling. The buck was little changed versus the Swiss franc and the yen
In economic news, euro zone economic sentiment weakened further in August due to strong loss in confidence among consumers, retailers and construction managers. The economic sentiment index dropped to 86.1 from 87.9 in July, European Commission said. The reading was below consensus forecast of 87.5.,
Meanwhile, Germany's unemployment increased by 9,000 in August from July, the Federal Labor Agency reported. The number of unemployed was forecast to rise by 7,000 after increasing 9,000 in July. At the same time, the jobless rate remained unchanged at 6.8 percent. The rate also matched economists' expectations. According to labor force survey, the adjusted jobless rate held steady at 5.5 percent in July,
Traders will look to the weekly jobless claims report from the U.S. Labor Department due out at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists expect claims to decline to 370,000 from 372,000 in the previous week.
Simultaneously, the Commerce Department will release its personal income & outlays report for July. Economists expect the report to show that personal income rose 0.3 percent, while personal spending is expected to have increased by 0.5 percent.
