The price of crude oil was slipping Monday morning as traders await cues from this week's economic data from the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies, and comments by the Federal Reserve chairman..
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for July delivery, the most actively traded contract, shed $0.49 to $95.80 an ounce. Last week, oil settled flat after some upbeat macroeconomic data out of the U.S. strengthened the US dollar versus a basket of currencies.
This morning the U.S. dollar was hovering near its 6-week high versus the euro and sterling. The buck was steady near its 4-year high versus the yen, while trading around its 10-month high against the Swiss franc.
In economic news from the euro zone, Italy's industrial new orders grew 1.6 percent in March from the prior month, due to a 3.6 percent rise in non-domestic demand, data from the statistical office Istat revealed. Orders from domestic market increased only 0.2 percent.
From the U.S., the Chicago Federal Reserve is due to release its monthly index measuring overall economic activity at 8:30 am ET.
Following the slew of economic data released over the past week, the U.S. economic calendar for this week is relatively light, with traders likely to keep an eye on reports on new and existing home sales, durable goods orders and weekly jobless claims for further signs of a meaningful recovery. Traders will also closely examine Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on Wednesday for clues about his view on tightening the central bank's monetary policy.
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.
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Market Analysis
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.