The price of crude oil was steady near $92 Tuesday morning as traders await cues from the US inventories data from the API and EIA.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for April delivery, slipped $0.16 to $91.90 an ounce. Yesterday, oil settled above $92 for the first time in a week after the dollar weakened against a basket of major currencies, with investors weighing some upbeat jobs and employment data from the U.S. last week even as the Federal Reserve expected to continue monetary stimulus through the year.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was hovering around a weekly high versus the euro, while advancing toward a 30-month high against sterling. The buck was trading around its two-and- half year high versus the yen and ticking higher against the Swiss franc.
In economic news from the euro zone Germany's EU harmonized inflation for February was confirmed at 1.8 percent, the final data published by the Federal Statistical Office showed. The annual rate eased marginally from 1.9 percent in January. The harmonized index of consumer prices gained 0.8 percent from the prior month, in line with flash estimate.
Meanwhile, U.K.'s industrial production declined unexpectedly by 1.2 percent month-on-month in January, reversing a 1.1 percent rise in December, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. Output was forecast to grow 0.1 percent. Similarly, manufacturing output slipped 1.5 percent, offsetting the 1.5 percent increase seen in December. Economists had forecast output to remain flat in January.
Today after the market hours, the API will release its US crude oil inventories report for the weekended March 08.
