The price of crude oil was ticking higher Tuesday morning amid speculation that US crude oil inventories will dip for the third consecutive week, and on weak US dollar. Recent data from the EIA revealed that US crude oil inventories have fallen more than 20 million barrels over the last two weeks
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for August delivery, edged up $0.20 to $106.52 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled marginally higher on some mixed macroeconomic data with investors weighing some soft Chinese gross domestic product data and the developments in Egypt that threatens to disrupt oil shipments from the Middle East.
This morning the U.S. dollar was moving lower versus the euro and sterling, while trading weak versus the Swiss franc and the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, German economic sentiment deteriorated unexpectedly in July, survey data from the Center for European Economic Research revealed. The ZEW indicator of economic sentiment fell 2.2 points to 36.3 point-mark, while it was forecast to improve to 40. Nonetheless, it remains above the historical average of 23.7.
Inflation in euro area accelerated to 1.6 percent in June from 1.4 percent in May, the Eurostat said, confirming its flash estimate. Month-on-month, the harmonized index of consumer prices increased 0.1 percent in June.
In a separate report, the Eurostat said eurozone's trade in goods with the rest of the world resulted in a surplus in May, which was higher than a month earlier. The trade surplus rose to EUR 15.2 billion in May from a downwardly revised EUR 14.1 billion in April. A year earlier, the surplus amounted to EUR 6.6 billion.
U.K. inflation rose to 2.9 percent in June on higher motor fuel and clothing and footwear charges, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. It was the fastest since April 2012. Although the rate exceeded the 2.7 percent seen in May, it stayed marginally below the expected rate of 3 percent. Month-on-month, consumer prices fell 0.2 percent, offsetting the 0.2 percent increase in the prior month.
Traders will look to the inflation report from the US Labor Department, due out at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists expect consumer prices to have increased by 0.4 percent month-over-month in June, while core consumer prices may have edged up 0.2 percent.
Later during the session, the National Association of Home Builders will release the results of its homebuilder confidence survey for July. Economists expect the housing market index to have remained unchanged at 52 in July.
After the market hours today, the API will release its US crude oil inventories report fro the weekended July 12.
