The price of crude oil was moving lower Tuesday morning as traders were cautious ahead of the outcome of 2-day FOMC meeting and a batch of macroeconomic data out of the US.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for September delivery, shed $0.65 to 103.90 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled marginally lower despite supply concerns with the situation in Egypt getting more complicated, fueling anxiety over shipment disruption through the Suez Canal, the major shipping route from the Middle-East.
This morning the U.S. dollar was lingering around one-month low versus the euro, Sterling and the Swiss franc. The buck continued to move lower against the yen.
In economic news, German consumer sentiment will likely improve in August, reports said, citing a survey report from market research firm GfK. The forward-looking consumer confidence index posted 7 in August, up from 6.8 in July. Economists expected a more modest increased to 6.9.
Meanwhile, euro zone economic confidence strengthened in July, driven by improved confidence among consumers and managers in industry, services and retail trade, survey data from the European Commission showed. The economic confidence index improved to 92.5 from 91.3 in the previous month. The reading matched economists' expectations.
From the U.S., the S&P Case-Shiller home price index for May will be released at 9 a.m ET. The 20-city composite house price index for May is expected to rise by a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent month-over-month, while the unadjusted index may have risen 2 percent. The annual rate of the increase in the index is expected at 12.3 percent.
Later during the session, the Conference Board is scheduled to release its consumer confidence index for July. The consensus expectations call for a small drop in the index to 81 in July from 81.4 in June.
Today after the market hours, the API will release its US crude oil inventories data for the weekended July 26.
