WASHINGTON (Alliance News) - The price of crude oil was little changed Wednesday morning as traders await cues from the official inventories data and the outcome of two-day US Federal Reserve policy review meet.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for February delivery, the most actively traded contract, edged up USD0.09 to USD97.56 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled almost flat as investors await the outcome of the US Federal Reserve policy review meet that began earlier today, anticipating the a cut to the Fed's USD85 billion monthly bond-buying program. With the Fed likely to begin tapering its quantitative easing program, speculations now center around the timing and quantum of cut.
Tuesday after the market hours, the API said US crude oil inventories declined 2.5 million barrels and gasoline stocks shed 481,000 barrels in the weekended December 13.
This morning the US dollar was lingering near a two-month low versus the euro and while trading lower against sterling.. The buck was struggling near a 2-year low versus the Swiss franc and flat against the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, German business sentiment improved in December in line with economists' expectations survey results published by the Ifo Institute revealed. The headline business climate index rose to 109.5 in December from 109.3 in November. The reading matched economists' forecasts.
Meanwhile, the UK claimant count fell slightly to 3.8% in November from 3.9% in October, the Office for National Statistics said. The rate matched economists' expectations. The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell by 36,700 to 1.27 million, the lowest figure since January 2009. Economists were expecting a fall of 35,000.
Elsewhere, policymakers of the Bank of England unanimously decided to maintain the interest rate at 0.50% and quantitative easing at GBP 375 billion, the minutes of the meeting held on December 4 and 5 showed.
From the U.S, the Commerce Department will release its housing starts report for November at 8:30 am ET. Economists expect housing starts to come in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 925,000, while building permits are estimated at 995,000.
The Federal Reserve is scheduled to release its monetary policy statement at 2 pm ET following the conclusion of the 2-day meeting. Chairman Ben Bernanke will address the customary post-meeting press conference at 2:30 pm ET.
Today during trading hours, the EIA will release its US crude oil inventories report for the week-ended December 13. Analysts expect crude oil inventories to drop by 3 million barrels and gasoline stocks to gain 1.5 million barrels last week.
