(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil was moving higher Thursday morning amid speculation that the ECB will announce buying of bonds of maturity up to 3 years to provide relief to troubled euro nations.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for October delivery, gained $1.09 to $96.45 a barrel. Yesterday oil ended higher after some encouraging revised productivity data from the U.S., even as traders continued to weigh the outcome of the European Central Bank policy meeting Thursday, anticipating further quantitative easing measures.
Wednesday after the market hours, the API said U.S. crude oil inventories were down by 7.20 million barrels and gasoline stocks dipped 2.3 million barrels in the weekended August 31.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was lingering around its two-month low versus the euro and near a four-month low against sterling. The buck was moving up to a weekly high versus the yen, while trading flat against the Swiss franc.
In economic news, the euro zone economy contracted as estimated earlier in the second quarter, data released by statistical office Eurostat showed. Gross domestic products decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent sequentially in the second quarter, in line with the preliminary estimates. The economy contracted in the second quarter after stagnating in the first quarter.
Elsewhere, Germany's factory orders grew by a more than expected 0.5 percent in July from June, data from the Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology showed. Economists had forecast a 0.3 percent growth after declining 1.6 percent in June. Domestic demand rose 1 percent and foreign orders edged up 0.1 percent.
The Bank of England held its interest rates at record low of 0.50 percent and maintained quantitative easing at GBP 375 billion.
The European Central Bank is likely to cut its record low benchmark interest rate, known as the refi, to 0.50 percent from 0.75 percent. The bank will announce its rate decision at 7.45 a.m ET.
Traders will look to the private sector employment report from the ADP, due out at 8.15 a.m. ET. The consensus expectations are for an addition of 149,000 jobs by the sector in August following an addition of 163,000 jobs in July.
The U.S. Labor Department will release its weekly jobless claims data at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists expect the claims to decline to 370,000 from 374,000 in the previous week.
Today during trading hours, the EIA will come out with its U.S. crude oil inventories report for the weekended August 31. Analysts expect crude oil inventories to dip by 5 million barrels and gasoline stocks to shed 3.50 million barrels last week.
