The price of crude oil was ticking higher Tuesday morning on supply concerns after the EU imposed new sanctions on Iran. However, gains were capped as traders await the outcome from the crucial European heads of state summit this week, where Greece and Spain would be in focus.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for November delivery, edged up $0.04 to $91.89 a barrel. Yesterday, oil ended flat amid some encouraging macroeconomic data from the U.S. and China, with the dollar dollar coming off the session's high over the Middle East imbroglio.
This morning, the U.S. dollar continued to level off from its two-week high versus the euro and from a monthly high against sterling. The buck moved back to a monthly high versus the yen, while ticking lower against the Swiss franc.
In economic news, euro zone inflation for September was revised down to 2.6 percent from the initial estimate of 2.7 percent, Eurostat said. The inflation rate, thus remained steady compared to August's 2.6 percent.
U.K. annual inflation reached the lowest since November 2009, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. Consumer price inflation fell to 2.2 percent, in line with forecast, from 2.5 percent in August. Nonetheless, it remains above the central bank's 2 percent target.
Meanwhile, German economic sentiment improved more than expected in October, a survey by the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) showed. The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment increased to -11.5 in October from -18.2 in September. This was forecast to rise to -14.9. This was the second increase of the indicator in a row.
Traders will look to the inflation data from the U.S. Labor Department due out at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists expect the inflation to have risen year-on-year to 1.9 percent from the previous 1.7 percent.
Today after the market hours, the API will come out with its U.S. crude oil inventories data for the weekended October 12.
