The price of crude oil was moving lower Wednesday morning as traders await cues from the official inventories data, due out later today during the session.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for July delivery, the most actively traded contract, slipped $0.61 to $95.57 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled lower as traders await cues from the Federal Open Market Committee policy meet outcome, due out later this week.
Tuesday after the market hours, the API said US crude oil inventories rose 532,000 barrels and gasoline stocks gained 3 million barrels in the weekended May 17.
This morning the U.S. dollar was leveling off from its 6-week high versus the euro, while extending gains against sterling. The buck was steady near its 4-year high versus the yen, while trading around its 10-month high against the Swiss franc.
In economic news, the euro area current account surplus surged to EUR 25.9 billion in March largely due to an increase in trade surplus, the European Central Bank reported. The current account surplus amounted to EUR 14.6 billion in February. The trade in goods totaled EUR 21.8 billion, up sharply from EUR 11.5 billion a month ago. However, the surplus on trade in services fell to EUR 7.6 billion from EUR 8.4 billion.
Meanwhile, retail sales in the UK declined unexpectedly in April, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed. Retail sales volume, including auto fuel, fell 1.3 percent month-on-month in April against forecast for a 0.1 percent increase. Sales, excluding fuel, dropped 1.4 percent compared with an expected 0.1 percent growth.
Elsewhere, the call for additional stimulus by Bank of England chief Mervyn King was overturned by other policymakers for the fourth consecutive month, minutes showed. As seen in previous months, King, Paul Fisher and David Miles sought an increase in quantitative easing by GBP 25 billion to GBP 400 billion.
From the U.S., the the National Association of Realtors will release its existing home sales report for April at 10 a.m. ET. Economists expect existing home sales to come in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5 million units compared to 4.920 million units in the previous month.
Today during trading hours, the EIA will release its crude oil inventories report for the weekended May 17. Analysts expect crude oil inventories to dip 1.2 million barrels last week.
