WASHINGTON (Alliance News) - The price of crude oil was little changed Thursday morning as demand growth concerns eased after report revealed larger-than-expected drop in US crude inventories last week.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for February delivery, eased USD0.13 to USD98.29 a barrel.
Tuesday after the market hours, the API reported a larger-than-expected drop of 5.7 million barrels in US crude inventories for the week ended December. 27.
This morning the US dollar moved up near a weekly high versus the euro and the Swiss franc, while lingering around a 2-year low versus sterling. The buck was extending its 5-year high against the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, the German manufacturing sector expanded slightly more than initially estimated in December, final data from Markit Economics showed. The Markit/BME Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 54.3 in December from 52.7 in November. The score was slightly above the initial estimate of 54.2.
Meanwhile, euro zone's manufacturing sector growth picked up further in December, as estimated in the flash report published last month, detailed results of a survey by Markit Economics showed. The headline purchasing managers' index rose for the third month running to post 52.7 in December. The reading was unchanged from the flash reading and was higher than November's score of 51.6.
German employment reached another record high in 2013, but the rise in employment was only about half of the average of 2011 and 2012, a report published by Destatis said. An average of 41.78 million persons were employed in 2013, up 232,000 or 0.6% from the previous year. Employment hit a record for the seventh month in a row.
Traders will look to the weekly jobless claims data from the US Labor Department due out at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists expect jobless claims to have increased to 338,500 from 338,000 in the previous week.
Markit will release the final estimates of its US manufacturing purchasing managers' index for December at 8:58 am ET. The consensus estimates call for a small decline in the index to 54.5 from the mid-month reading of 54.7.
Later during the session, the Institute for Supply Management is scheduled to release the results of its national manufacturing survey for December. Economists expect the manufacturing purchasing managers' index based on the survey to slip to 57 from 57.3 in November.
The Commerce Department will release its construction spending report for November. The consensus estimates call for a 1% increase in the construction spending for the month.
