The price of crude oil was moving higher Thursday morning as traders await cues from the official inventories data from the EIA, due out later today. Also, tensions between Syria and Turkey, and a steady euro supported prices.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for November delivery, gained $0.79 to $92.04 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled lower as investors weighed demand growth concerns and supply concerns from the tension build-up between Turkey and Syria in the Middle East.
Wednesday after the market hours, the API said U.S. crude oil inventories rose 1.65 million barrels and gasoline stocks added 2.5 million barrels in the weekended October 05.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was hovering near its two-week high versus the euro and easing from a monthly high against sterling. The buck was trading flat versus the Swiss franc and the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, Germany's EU harmonized inflation weakened in September as estimated earlier, final data released by the Federal Statistical Office showed. The harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) decelerated to 2.1 percent in September from 2.2 percent in August, in line with the preliminary estimates.
Earlier today, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services downgraded its sovereign ratings on Spain by two notches to the lowest investment grade, highlighting the mounting risks to public finances from rising economic and political pressures.
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 increase to 370,000 from 367,000 in the previous week..
Simultaneously, the the Commerce Department will release its trade gap data for August at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists estimate that the trade gap widened to $44 billion in the month from $42 billion in July
Today during trading hours, the EIA will release its U.S. crude oil inventories report for the weekended October 05. Analysts expect crude oil inventories to jump 1.50 million barrels, while gasoline stocks are seen little changed.
