WASHINGTON (Alliance News) - The price of crude oil was ticking lower Wednesday morning as traders await cues from the official inventories data due out later during the session.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for January delivery, shed USD0.42 to USD93.26 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled lower amid demand growth concerns after the six western powers and Iran reached an agreement on the Middle East country's nuclear program, which is likely to improve the international crude oil supply situation.
Tuesday after the market hours, the API said US crude oil inventories jumped 6.90 million barrels in the weekended November 22.
This morning the US dollar dipped near monthly low versus the euro, while diving near a yearly low against sterling. The buck was extending gains versus the yen, while moving lower against the Swiss franc.
In economic news from the euro zone, Germany's consumer confidence gained momentum as the year comes to an end, survey data from the market research group GfK showed. The forward-looking consumer confidence index rose to 7.4 from a revised value of 7.1 points in November. The reading was expected to rise to 7.1 from November's originally estimated value of 7.
Elsewhere, the UK economy expanded 0.8 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter, in line with the initial estimate published on October 25. Gross domestic product grew at the fastest pace since the second quarter of 2010, and follows 0.7 percent growth in the second quarter of 2013, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.
Traders will look to the weekly jobless claims data from the US labor Department due out at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists estimate the claims to tick up to 330,000 from 323,000 reported in the previous week.
Simultaneously, the Commerce Department will release its durable good order for October. Economists expect a 2 percent month-over-month drop in durable goods orders, while excluding transportation orders may have edged up 0.4 percent.
Today during trading hours, the EIA will release its US crude oil inventories data for the weekended November 22. Analysts expect supplies to have risen by 0.75 million barrels last week.
