The price of crude oil was little changed Wednesday morning as traders await cues from the official inventories data and the minutes of the FOMC meeting, due later today.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for October delivery, eased $0.07 to $105.04 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled near a 2-week low as traders were cautious ahead of the US crude oil inventories report.
Tuesday after the market hours, the API said US crude oil inventories dipped 1.2 million barrels and gasoline stocks shed 3.7 million barrels in the weekended August 16.
This morning the U.S. dollar was leveling-off from its 2-month low versus the euro and trading flat against sterling. The buck was steady versus the Swiss franc and the yen.
In economic news, the U.K. budget balance unexpectedly moved to a deficit in July from a surplus last year, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed The public sector net borrowing (PSNB) excluding interventions amounted to GBP 0.1 billion in July compared with -GBP 0.8 billion last year, which indicated a budget surplus. Economists had forecast PSNB ex interventions to be at -GBP 2.9 billion.
Traders will look to the release of existing home sales report for July from the National Association of Realtors at 10 a.m. ET. Economists expect existing home sales to come in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.150 million units
Today during trading hours, the EIA will release it US crude oil inventories report for the weekended August 16. Analysts expect US crude oil inventories to drop 1.3 million barrels last week.
