The price of crude oil was moving higher Monday morning amid concerns over supply disruptions following geopolitical tensions in the middle-east region, as violence escalated in Syria.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for July delivery, rose $0.61 to $98.46 a barrel. Last week, oil rose nearly 2 percent on some better than expected weekly initial jobless claims and retail sales data out of the U.S. Nevertheless, investors mulled over the official Energy Information Administration weekly oil report the previous day, which indicated a more-than-anticipated jump in U.S. crude oil stockpiles last week.
This morning the U.S. dollar was leveling off from its 4-month low versus the euro, the Swiss franc and sterling, while lingering around its two-month low against the yen.
In economic news, euro zone's trade in goods with the rest of the world resulted in a surplus in April, which was lower than a month earlier, data from Eurostat revealed. The trade surplus fell to EUR 14.9 billion in April from EUR 22.5 billion in March. A year earlier, the surplus amounted to EUR 3.3 billion. Exports grew 9 percent year-on-year in April, following a flat result in March. Imports rose 1 percent annually, recovering marginally from 10 percent slump in the previous month.
From the U.S., the New York Federal Reserve will release the results of its manufacturing survey for June at 8:30 am ET. The consensus expectations call for an increase in the general business activity index based on the survey to 0.50 from 1.43 in May.
Later during the session,, the National Association of Home Builders is scheduled to release its housing market index for June. Economists expect the index to rise to 45 from 44 in May.
During this week traders will focus on the 2-day FOMC meetings, the results of the New York Federal Reserve and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's manufacturing surveys for June, the jobless claims report, the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index for June, the Commerce Department's housing starts report for May and the National Association of Realtors' existing home sales report for May
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.
