The price of curd oil was lingering below the $100-mark Tuesday morning as traders were cautious ahead of the release of U.S. non-farm payrolls data.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, eased $0.23 to $99.45 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled below the $100-mark for the first time in more than three months on demand growth concerns after a delayed official weekly oil report from the Energy Information Administration showed crude oil stockpiles in the U.S. to have increased more than expected a week ago. Oil prices also found little support with some weak existing home sales data, with the dollar trading higher against some select currencies.
Monday during trading hours, the EIA said that US crude oil inventories gained 4.0 million barrels, while gasoline stocks shed 2.60 million barrels in the weekended October 11. Analysts expected crude oil inventories to gain 2.75 million barrels last week. The figures were delayed because of the government shutdown.
This morning the U.S. dollar was lingering near a 10-month low versus the euro and sterling, while trading higher against the Swiss franc and the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, Switzerland's trade surplus beat expectations in September, the latest figures from the Federal Customs Administrations showed. The trade surplus for September was CHF 2.5 billion compared with an expected CHF 2 billion surplus. In the July-September period, the trade surplus was CHF 6.9 billion.
Elsewhere, the U.K. budget deficit narrowed to GBP 11.1 billion in September from GBP 12.1 billion seen in the corresponding period of last year, the Office for National Statistics reported. Public sector net borrowing excluding financial interventions was also below consensus of GBP 11.3 billion. The GBP 3.2 billion received in cash from the sale of Lloyds banking group shares in September did not reduce PSNB, the ONS said.
From the U.S., the Labor Department will come out with its non-farm payroll report fro the month of September at 8:30 am ET. Economists expect the economy to have added 185,000 jobs for the month, while the unemployment rate is expected to have remained unchanged at 7.3 percent.
The Commerce Department will release its construction spending report for August at 10 am ET. The consensus estimates call for a 0.4 percent increase in construction spending for the month compared to the 0.6 percent increase in the previous month.
