The price of crude oil was leveling off from a two-week high Tuesday morning amid a deadlock in U.S. budget talks.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for January delivery, were down $0.34 to $88,75 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled marginally higher on a weak dollar and some upbeat manufacturing data out of China, seen as a sign of improving economic stability and oil demand growth in the world's second largest economy.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was extending its one month low versus the euro and sterling. The buck continued to level-off firm its 7-month high versus the yen and ticking higher against the Swiss franc.
In economic news, producer price inflation in the euro area slowed less than economists expected in October, data released by statistical office Eurostat showed. Producer price inflation eased to 2.6 percent in October from 2.7 percent each in September and August. Economists has forecast a faster slowdown to 2.5 percent.
Today after the market hours, the API will release its crude oil inventories report for the weekended November 30.
