The price of crude oil was struggling to move higher Thursday morning as US crude oil inventories continued to move higher. Weekly inventories data from both the API and EIA suggested pile up of inventories during the first week of April 2013.
Earlier today, the International Energy Agency left its its global oil demand forecast for the year 2013 little changed following slightly lower-than-expected first-quarter 2013 deliveries.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for May delivery, eased $0.18 to $94.46 a barrel. Yesterday, oil extended gains for a third session to settle near $95 tracking rising global equity markets following the release of the Federal Open Market Committee policy meet minutes and the Energy Information Administration's weekly oil report showing a less than expected rise in U.S. crude stockpiles last week. The Fed Reserve voted to continue its bond buying program, although opinions were divided as to when the measure should be discontinued. Nevertheless, oil prices were under pressure for most of the day with the dollar trading strong against a basket of major currencies.
Wednesday during trading hours, the EIA said that U.S. crude oil inventories edged up 0.30 million barrels, while gasoline stocks added 1.70 million barrels in the weekended April 05. Analysts expected crude oil inventories to add 1.2 million barrels, while gasoline stocks were seen shedding 1 million barrels last week.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was extending its one-month low versus the euro, sterling and the Swiss franc, while trading steady near its 4-year high versus the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, Germany's EU harmonized inflation stayed unchanged at 1.8 percent in March, as estimated earlier, final data released by the Federal Statistical Office showed. Inflation as per the harmonized index of consumer prices stayed unchanged at 1.8 percent in March. The figure matched preliminary estimates. On a monthly basis, the HICP moved up 0.4 percent in March, in line with the preliminary estimates, the agency said.
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 decline to 365,000 in the week from 385,000 in the previous week.
Simultaneously, the Labor Department will release its report on export and import prices for March. Economists expect export price growth of 0.1 percent for the month, while import prices may have declined 0.5 percent.
