WASHINGTON (Alliance News) - The price of crude oil was lingering around its four-month low Monday morning amid a generally steady dollar and on concerns over rising US crude oil inventories.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for December delivery, eased USD0.02 to USD94.59 a barrel. Last week, oil lost about 3 percent to dip near a fresh 4-month low after some strong macroeconomic data fueled concerns that the Federal Reserve may begin tapering its quantitative easing program much earlier than expected.
This morning the US dollar was hovering around its 2-week high versus the euro, sterling, the Swiss franc and the yen.
In economic news, Germany's manufacturing sector grew at a faster-than-expected rate during October, led by growth in production and new orders, survey data released by Markit Economics showed .The final Markit/BME Germany Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 51.7 from September's 51.1. The flash estimate was 51.5.
Meanwhile, the euro zone manufacturing sector carried its modest third quarter recovery into the final quarter of the year as initially estimated, final data from Markit Economics showed. The manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 51.3, in line with flash estimate from 51.1 in September.
Elsewhere, the UK construction output grew at the steepest pace since September 2007, survey results from Markit Economics showed. The Markit/Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply construction Purchasing Managers' Index came in at 59.4 in October, up from 58.9 in September and above the 50.0 no-change threshold for the sixth consecutive month.
Traders will look to the Commerce Department's factory orders reports for both August and September at 10 a.m ET. Economists expect orders to have risen by 0.3 percent month-over-month in August following a 2.4 percent decline in July. The September report is expected to show a 1.7 percent increase in factory orders.
During this week focus will be on the Labor Department's non-farm payrolls report for October, the jobless claims report, the Commerce Department's personal income & spending report, the preliminary consumer sentiment index based on a survey by Reuters and the University of Michigan and the results of the Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing survey for October.
Also, focus will be on the crude oil inventories data from the API, due out Wednesday after the market hours, and the EIA due out the subsequent day.
