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Oil holds above $98.50 as inventories fall as Fed, EIA in Spotlight
ecPulse
2013-06-19 07:02AM UTC
Oil holds above $98.50, trading near the highest in nine months, after a report showed U.S. crude inventories dropped last week, while investors are looking forward to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech later in the day. The U.S. Federal Reserve two-day meeting ends today and investors are looking for clues on the outlook for stimulus. Bernanke suggested that the central bank could be looking to roll back stimulus and analysts expect this might happen in this year’s second half. The American Petroleum Institute showed yesterday that crude inventories fell by 4.3 million barrels last week. Moreover, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) report today may show supplies declined by 500,000 barrels. - Crude oil trading as of this writing around $98.68 a barrel after rising $0.24. - Brent is trading around $106.16 a barrel after rising $0.14. Fears of a possible supply disruption from the Middle East are also keeping oil prices higher. Fighting intensified in Aleppo, Syria`s biggest city, while Russian President Vladimir Putin was isolated among fellow G8 leaders for backing President Bashar al-Assad. Putin agreed however to sign a statement at the summit in Northern Ireland calling for a “transitional governing body with full executive powers, formed by mutual consent” in Syria while stopping the call for Assad’s ouster. - Natural gas s trading at $3.926 per cubic feet after rising 0.54%. - Gasoline s trading at $2.8847 a gallon after rising 0.18%. - Heating oil is trading at $2.9653 a gallon after rising 0.12%.
Eurozone construction output advances in April
Fx News Today
2013-06-19 09:12AM UTC
Eurozone Construction output increased to 2.0 percent in April, from 1.7 percent drop revised to 1.8 percent drop in March.
As for the WDA year-on-year reading for April, construction output decreased 6.6 percent, from a decrease of 7.9 percent in the year ended March.