The price of crude oil was ticking higher Wednesday morning as traders await cues from the official inventories data from the EIA. Reports showed the Spanish government is inching closer to officially request a European bailout also lifted trader sentiment to some extent.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for November delivery, added $0.09 to $92.18 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled higher tracking rising equity markets and a weak dollar, with reports indicating a bailout request from Spain a near possibility, and some upbeat data out of Europe and the U.S. Investors also await the outcome of the crucial European heads of state summit later this week, with Greece and Spain in focus.
Tuesday after the market hours, the API said U.S. crude oil supplies rose 3.70 million barrels, while gasoline stocks eased 1.2 million barrels in the weekended October 12.
This morning, the U.S. dollar continued to level off from its two-week high versus the euro and from a monthly high against sterling. The buck was ticking lower versus the yen and the Swiss franc.
In economic news, unemployment rate in the U.K. declined unexpectedly between June and August, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed. The jobless rate fell to 7.9 percent in the June-August period from 8.1 percent during March-May. Economists expected the rate to remain unchanged from the previous period.
Bank of England policymakers unanimously decided to maintain quantitative easing at GBP 375 billion and the interest rate unchanged at 0.50 percent, the minutes of the meeting showed today.
Traders will look to the Commerce Department's report on housing starts and building permits, due out at 8.30 a.m. ET. Economists expect housing starts to edge up to 770,000 in September from the previous 750,000 and building permits to gain to 810,000 from 803,000.
Today during trading hours, the EIA will release its U.S. crude oil inventories report for the weekended October 12. Analysts expect crude oil inventories to gain 1.5 million barrels and gasoline stocks to shed 0.40 million barrels last week.
