The price of crude oil was little changed Thursday morning, with traders awaiting fresh triggers after mixed inventories data and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for August delivery, eased $0.21 to 106.27 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled higher ended higher Wednesday, after an official Energy Information Administration weekly report showed U.S. crude inventories to have dropped more than expected last week.
Wednesday during trading hours, the EIA said US crude oil inventories moved down for a third week in a row, shedding 6.90 million barrels, while gasoline stocks were up 3.10 million barrels in the weekended July 12. Analysts expected crude oil stocks to shed 2.5 million barrels, while gasoline stocks are seen little changed.
This morning the U.S. dollar was recovering from its recent losses versus the euro, while trading flat against sterling. The buck was moving higher versus the yen and the Swiss franc.
In economic news, euro zone's current account surplus decreased in May from the previous month, due mainly to higher deficit in current transfers and a decline in revenues, the European Central Bank said. The seasonally adjusted current account surplus dropped to EUR19.6 billion in May from an upwardly revised EUR23.8 billion in April. In March, the balance was a surplus of EUR23.1 billion.
U.K. retail sales volume, both excluding and including auto fuel, grew 0.2 percent each month-on-month in June, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. Economists had forecast sales including auto fuel to grow 0.3 percent following a 2.1 percent rise in May. Sales, excluding auto fuel grew in line with economists' expectations, after expanding 2.1 percent a month ago.
Traders will look to the weekly jobless claims data from the US Labor Department due out at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists expect claims to have moved down to 345,000 from 360,000.reported the last week.
