After falling near a six-month low, the price of crude oil was little changed Friday morning amid a generally steady US dollar.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for December delivery, edged up $0.15 to $93.91 a barrel. Yesterday, oil settled lower after the Energy Information Administration's weekly oil report indicated crude stockpiles in the U.S. to have increased. Investors also weighed Federal Reserve chairwoman-designate Janet Yellen's statement that the central bank is in no hurry to taper down its quantitative easing program. Crude oil prices also found support on the escalating tensions in Libya which threatens to disrupt supplies from the troubled nation.
Thursday during trading hours, the EIA said US crude oil inventories gained 2.60 million barrels, while gasoline stocks shed 0.80 million barrels in the weekended November 08. Analysts expected crude oil stocks to climb 1.0 million barrels and gasoline stocks to dip 300,000 barrels last week.
This morning the U.S. dollar was extending gains versus the euro, sterling and the Swiss franc, while advancing toward a fresh 2-month high against the yen.
In economic news, euro zone inflation slowed to 0.7 percent in October, as initially estimated, from 1.1 percent in September, final data from Eurostat showed. The rate was the lowest since November 2009. Moreover, it has remained below the European Central Bank's target of 'below, but close to 2 percent' for the ninth month in a row. Month-on-month, consumer prices were down 0.1 percent in October, the statistical office said.
From the U.S., the Labor Department will release its report on export and import prices for October. Economists expect export prices to have increased by 0.2 percent month-over-month, while import prices are estimated to have declined by 0.5 percent.
The Federal Reserve is due to release its industrial production report for October at 9:15 am ET. The consensus estimates call for a 0.1 percent month-over-month increase in industrial output, while capacity utilization may have remained unchanged at 78.3 percent.
Later during the session, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release its wholesale inventories report for September. Economists expect the wholesale inventories to have increased by 0.4 percent month-over-month in September.
