The price of crude oil eased from the $79-mark Friday morning on worries over demand growth and on a resurgent dollar.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for March 2010 were down $0.61 to $78.45, after rising near its monthly high in the previous session.
Yesterday, the Energy Information Administration data revealed that U.S. crude inventories rose by 3.10 million barrels in the week ended February 12. Analysts were expecting inventories to increase by 1.62 million barrels.
Meanwhile the U.S. dollar edged up versus the euro and the British pound. The greenback jumped sharply against the euro Thursday after the Federal Reserve said it was raising the interest rate it charges on emergency loans to banks by one-quarter point to 0.75% effective Friday.
Some of today's trading action may be guided by the U.S. CPI data and movements in the stock markets.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.