The price of crude oil was moving higher Friday morning as traders await cues from the jobs data due out later today.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for August delivery, added $0.87 to $102.11 a barrel.
Wednesday, during trading hours, the EIA said that US crude oil inventories dived 10.30 million barrels and gasoline stocks shed 1.70 million barrels in the weekended June 28. Analysts expected crude oil inventories to dip only by 3 million barrels last week.
This morning the U.S. dollar advanced toward a fresh 6-week high versus the euro and jumped toward a four-month high against sterling. The buck was steady around its one-month high versus the Swiss franc and the yen.
In economic news, Germany's factory orders declined unexpectedly in May largely due to subdued demand from euro area, a report from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology revealed. Factory orders slipped 1.3 percent from a month ago, when it was down 2.2 percent. It was forecast to grow 1.2 percent.
Meanwhile, Swiss consumer prices declined less than expected in June, a report from the Federal Statistical Office showed. The consumer price index fell 0.1 percent year-on-year in June compared with forecast for a 0.4 percent decline. This followed a 0.5 percent drop in May and 1.1 percent fall in June 2012.
Traders will look to the jobs data for the month of June from the U.S. Labor Department, due out at 8.30 a.m ET. Economists estimate non-farm payroll gains of 161,000 for June, slower than the 175,000 pace witnessed in the May. Specifically, private payrolls are expected to have expanded by 175,000 compared to 178,000 in the previous month. The unemployment rate is expected to tick down to 7.5 percent.
