Oil prices continued to fall as the US market opened on Thursday, falling for the first day in 3, after hitting a 2-month high due to profit-taking, but today's loss remains limited thanks to a drop in the US crude inventories and oil production, while the US dollar fell against its peers.

US crude fell 0.9% to $82.06 a barrel, after opening at $82.79, and hit a high at $82.91, and Brent crude fell 0.6% to $84.20 a barrel, after opening at $84.73, and hit a high at $84.94.

The US crude gained 1.8% yesterday, and hit a 2-month high at $83.07, and Brent rose 1.3% and hit the highest since November 10 at $85.18, 2.1%, following the US Energy Information Administration's weekly report..

The Energy Information Administration reported today that the US crude inventories fell 4.6 million barrels to 413.5 million barrels during the past week, while analysts forecast a drop by 2.1 million barrels, which is the lowest level since the week ending October 5, 2018.

US oil production also fell 100,000 barrels per day last week, to a total of 11.7 million barrels per day.

The dollar index fell more than 0.3% today, deepening losses for the third day in a row, and hit a 2-month low at 94.71 points.

The greenback drop lifts demand dollar-denominated commodity prices, making prices cheaper for other currencies buyers.

At 13:30 GMT, the US Department of Labor showed that the unemployment claims reached 230K during the past week, worse than forecasts of 199K, and worse than the previous reading of 207K. This data is negative for the US dollar.

At 13:30 GMT, the US economy released its reading for the producer prices index, which rose by 0.2% in December, lower than the previous reading 0.8%, and lower than forecasts of 0.4%.

The core reading (excluding food and fuel prices) rose by 0.5%, on par with forecasts, and lower than the previous reading of 0.7%. This data is negative for the US dollar.

European stocks fell on Thursday, as recovery from a 3-week low halted due to investors' risk aversion, after  the 10-year US Treasury bond yield rebounded.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.2% as of 11:45 GMT, after it closed higher by 0.7% and within recovery from the 3-week low of 477.90 points.

The healthcare sector is the biggest loser in Europe today, with a drop of more than 0.75%, followed by the tech sector.

The 10-year US Treasury yield rose 1.5% today, snapping the 3-day losing streak, and weighing down on risk appetite in global stock markets.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.4% today ahead of Wall Street's opening, after the index closed higher by 0.3% yesterday.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index fell 0.3%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.7%, Germany's DAX index fell 0.1%, and the UK's FTSE 100 fell more than 0.2%.