The price of crude oil was ticking higher Wednesday morning as traders await more cues from official inventories data due out later today.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for July delivery, edged up $0.31 to $93.62 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled marginally lower even as investors awaited fresh catalysts ahead of the weekly inventories data with the dollar strengthening against a basket of major currencies. Analysts expected crude oil inventories to decline a modest 1 million barrels last week.
Tuesday after the market hours, the API said US crude oil inventories tumbled 7.8 million barrels and gasoline stocks declined 1.3 million barrels in the weekended May 31.
This morning the U.S. dollar was lingering around its one-month low versus the euro and the Swiss franc, while trading near its three-week low against sterling. The buck continued to hover around its 4 year high versus the yen.
In economic news, the euro area economy shrank 0.2 percent in the first quarter from the prior quarter as initially estimated, second estimates from Eurostat showed. The recession, thus extended into the sixth quarter. The latest sequential decline follows a 0.6 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Separately, Eurostat said retail sales in euro zone declined for a third successive month in April. Sales dropped 0.5 percent month-on-month in April, faster than a 0.2 percent fall reported in March. Economists had forecast a 0.2 percent fall.
Germany's service sector shrank for the second month in a row in May, reflecting worsening business conditions, final data from Markit Economics showed. The final services Purchasing Managers' Index registered 49.7 in May, up from 49.6 in April. The final reading is slightly below the preliminary estimate of 49.8. A reading below 50 indicates contraction in the sector.
Traders will look to the private sector employment report from the ADP, due out at 8.15 a.m ET. Economists expect 165,000 job creations during the month of May, up from 119,000 reported the previous month.
Today during the market hours, the EIA will release its US crude oil inventories for the weekended May 31. Analysts expect US crude oil inventories to dip 800,000 barrels last week.
