The price of crude oil continued to move lower Friday morning amid concerns over demand growth after China yesterday reported weak manufacturing growth.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for July delivery, shed $0.80 to $93.45 a barrel. Yesterday oil settled marginally lower after some weak manufacturing data out of China renewed fears of demand growth concerns. Nevertheless, oil prices rallied on some upbeat macroeconomic data out of the U.S. with initial jobless claims dropping more than expected last week. China's manufacturing sector contracted for the first time in seven months in May. The drop comes amid poor demand, fueling concerns of weakness in the economy that may persist for some more time.
This morning the U.S. dollar continued to level off from its 6-week high versus the euro, while trading flat against sterling. The buck was steady near its 4-year high versus the yen, while hovering around its 10-month high against the Swiss franc.
In economic news from the euro zone, Germany's consumer confidence is set to strengthen in June, results of a survey by market research firm GfK showed. The forward-looking index for June rose to 6.5 in June from 6.2 in May. Economists had forecast the indicator to remain unchanged at 6.2. Economic expectations as well as income expectations of consumers improved in May. Following a moderate fall in April, economic expectations gained 1.3 points to -0.2.
Meanwhile, Germany's business sentiment improved to 105.7 in May from 104.4 in April, reports said citing a survey from the Ifo institute. The reading was forecast to remain unchanged at 104.4.
Traders will look to the US durable goods order from the US Commerce Department, due out at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists expect the orders to edge up to 1.5 percent in April after it fell 6.90 percent in the previous month.
