The price of crude oil was little changed Monday morning as traders await further cues from the developments in the US budget talks.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for January delivery, edged down $0.07 to $86.66 a barrel. Last week, oil settled marginally higher after the Fed announced that it will replace its "Operation Twist" program, which expires at the end of the year, with the purchase of longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion per month.
This morning, the U.S. dollar slipped back near a 7-month low and a fresh 2-month low against sterling. The buck was hovering near its 9-month high versus the yen and flat against the Swiss franc.
In economic news, euro zone's trade surplus increased unexpectedly in October, a report published by Eurostat showed. Euro zone's merchandise trade showed a surplus of EUR 10.2 billion in October, higher than a trade surplus of EUR 9.5 billion recorded in September. Economists had forecast the surplus to fall to EUR 9 billion.
Traders will look to the results of its manufacturing survey from the New York Federal Reserve, due out at 8:30 am ET. Economists expect the general business conditions index to come in at 0 for December compared to -5.22 for November.
During this week, traders focus will be on the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index for December, the Commerce Department's housing starts data for November, the National Association of Realtors' existing home sales data for November, the Federal House Finance Agency's house price index for October and the weekly jobless claims report.
Also, focus will be on the crude oil inventories data from the API, due out Tuesday after the market hours, and the EIA due out the subsequent day.
