WASHINGTON (Alliance News) - The price of crude oil was moving lower Thursday morning amid concerns over demand growth after an industry data revealed crude stock buildup in the US last week.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for November delivery, shed USD0.49 to USD101.80 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled higher tracking rising equity markets after the Senate announced reaching an agreement to end the more than two-week federal government shutdown and raise the US debt ceiling limit to avert a default. The agreement will enable funding the government through January 15 and extend the debt limit through February 7. The plan also calls for lawmakers to work toward a broader budget agreement by December 13 and includes stricter income verification for subsidies under Obamacare.
Wednesday after the market hours, the API said US crude oil inventories increased 5.94 million barrels, while gasoline stocks shed 2.21 million barrels in the weekended October 11. Analysts projected US oil inventories to have increased by 1.7 million barrels and gasoline stockpiles are expected to drop by 100,000 barrels last week.
This morning the US dollar continued to level-off from its one-month high versus the euro, sterling, the Swiss franc and the yen.
In economic news, euro zone's current account surplus increased in August mainly due to a rise in visible trade surplus, monthly data from the European Central Bank showed. The current account surplus rose to a seasonally adjusted EUR 17.4 billion in August from EUR 15.5 billion in July. The surplus on trade in goods increased to EUR 14.7 billion from EUR 11.1 billion in the previous month.
Euro zone's construction output increased at a slower pace in August, preliminary data released by statistical office Eurostat showed. Construction production increased a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent month-on-month, following a 0.7 percent gain in July and a 1.5 percent growth in June.
UK retail sales increased more than expected in September, data from the Office for National Statistics revealed. Retail sales volume, including automotive fuel, rose 0.6 percent month-on-month in September. This was forecast to grow 0.4 percent.
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 declined to 330,000 from 374,000 in the previous week.
The Federal Reserve is slated to release its industrial production report for September at 9:15 a.m ET. The consensus estimates call for a 0.4 percent month-over-month increase in industrial output, while capacity utilization may have increased to 78.1 percent.
Later during the session, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve will release the results of its manufacturing survey for October. Economists expect the general business conditions index to decline to 15 from 22.3 in September.
