The price of crude oil was moving higher Tuesday morning amid supply worries on reports floods in Canada impacted oil pipelines. Also, traders looked ahead to the release of weekly supply data from the U.S.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for August delivery, gained $0.71 to $95.91 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled higher on supply concerns after news reports indicated floods in Canada to have impacted oil pipelines. Investors also weighed a People's Bank of China statement indicating it would fine-tune policies to allow slightly easier monetary conditions in view of the acute cash crunch in the already slowing economy.
This morning the U.S. dollar was hovering near a 3-week high versus the euro and sterling, while trading flat versus the yen and the Swiss franc.
In economic news from the euro zone, France's business confidence improved moderately in June from the previous month, survey data released by statistical office Insee showed. The business confidence index for the manufacturing sector rose to 93 in June from 92 in May. The figure matched economists' expectations. The index, however, remained below its long-term average.
U.K. retailers expect sales to pick up in July after remaining almost stable in June, latest monthly Distributive Trades Survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed. About 25 percent of firms reported that sales volumes were up on a year earlier, and 24 percent said they were down, giving a balance of 1 percent. This was below expectations of 10 percent.
Traders will look to the durable goods orders report for May from the U.S. Commerce Department, due out at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists estimate durable goods order growth of 3.3 percent for the month. On the other hand, orders, excluding transportation, may have edged down by 0.1 percent.
The Commerce Department will also release its new home sales report for May at 10 a.m ET. Economists expect new home sales of 460,000 for the month compared to 454,000 in the previous month.
The Federal House Finance Agency will release its house price index for April at 9 a.m. ET. The house price index is expected to have risen by 1.2 percent compared to the previous month.
Simultaneously, the S&P and Case-Shiller are scheduled to release the results of its house price survey for April. The consensus estimates call for a monthly increase of 1.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Around the same time, the Conference Board is due to release the results of its consumer confidence survey for June. Economists expect a drop in the index to 75 from 76.2 in May.
Today after the market hours, the API will release its US crude oil inventories report for the weekended June 21.
