The price of crude oil was moving higher Thursday morning amid speculation that ECB will trim its interest rates to support the sagging economy. Meanwhile, China cuts bank reserve requirement ratio
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for August delivery, edged up $0.63 to $88.29 a barrel. Tuesday after the market hours, the API said U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 3 million barrels and gasoline stocks eased 1.4 million barrels in the weekended June 29.
This morning, the U.S. dollar moved back near its weekly high versus the euro and sterling. The buck was ticking lower against the yen, while trading flat versus the Swiss franc.
In economic news, euro zone, Germany's factory orders grew unexpectedly by 0.6 percent in May from a month ago, the Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology said. Economists were expecting orders to remain flat after easing 1.4 percent in April.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England left its interest rate unchanged at 0.50 percent, while raising bond purchase program by GBP 50 billion to GBP 375 billion, as widely expected.
The European Central Bank is set to announce its interest rate decision at 7.45 am ET. ECB President Mario Draghi is likely to reduce the main refinancing rate by 25 basis points to 0.75 percent.
Traders will look to the report on private sector employment from the ADP, due out at 8.15 a.m ET. Economists expect an addition of 13,000 jobs by the private sector in June following an addition of 133,000 jobs in May.
The U.S. Labor Department will come out with its weekly jobless claims data at 8.30 a.m. ET Economists expect claims to remain unchanged at 386,000 in the recent reporting week.
Later during the session, the Institute for Supply Management is scheduled to release the results of its non-manufacturing survey. The non-manufacturing index is likely to show a reading of 53 for June, lower than 53.7 in May.
Today during trading hours, the EIA will come out with its U.S. crude oil inventories report for the weekended June 29.
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