The price of crude oil was moving higher Friday morning as traders await cues from the non-farm payroll report, due out later today.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for June delivery, gained $0.52 to $94.51 a barrel. Yesterday, oil rebounded over 3 percent to end near $94, with demand concerns easing after some upbeat initial jobless claims data from the U.S. and the European Central Bank's move to cut interest rates to a record low while not ruling out further easing measures if required. The ECB move was in line with expectations after a slew of disappointing economic growth data globally.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was paring its previous session's gains versus the euro and the Swiss franc, while lingering near a three-month low versus sterling. The buck was hovering around its 4-year high versus the yen.
In economic news, producer price inflation in the euro area weakened for the third successive month in March, but was slightly above economists' forecast, latest data showed. The producer price inflation eased to 0.7 percent in March from a revised 1.4 percent in the previous month, marking the third slowdown in a row, statistical office Eurostat showed. Economists had forecast inflation to ease to 0.6 percent from the February's originally reported 1.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the European Commission lowered the economic outlook for euro area this year as well as the next, saying that domestic investment and consumption are still being held back by balance-sheet adjustment and credit supply constraints in some countries. In its latest Spring 2013 Forecast, the Commission said that the euro area will contract 0.4 percent in 2013, steeper than a 0.3 percent shrinkage predicted in February.
Traders will look to the non farm payroll report from the U.S. Labor Department, due out at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists expect job gains of 153,000 for the month following an addition of 88,000 jobs in March. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 7.6 percent.
Later during the session, the Institute for Supply Management will release its service sector report for April. The consensus expectations call for a small decline in the index to 54 from 54.4 in March.
Around the same time, the Commerce Department will release its factory orders report for March. Economists expect a 2.8 percent drop in orders, reversing the 3 percent increase in February.
