Crude Oil Ends Lower Ahead Of Supply Data

(RTTNews) - U.S. crude oil slipped for a third day to end at a near one-month low on Wednesday, ahead of the official weekly crude oil inventory report from the Energy Information Administration due tomorrow, even as the dollar continued to strengthen against a select band of currencies.

The oil and gas industry trade group, American Petroleum Institute will release its inventories report later in the day.

Oil prices have been bouncing back and forth around $60 a barrel, capped by surging global inventories and renewed strength for the U.S. dollar. OPEC is expected to formulate a policy response to the surging inventories at its June 5 meeting in Vienna.

Tensions in the Middle East, particularly surrounding the conflict in Yemen and ISIS gains in Iraq, have kept crude oil prices afloat.

Meanwhile, the dollar has rallied on the eurozone crisis involving Greece. Nevertheless, there have been hints that Greece is almost close to a deal with its international creditors. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras in a statement said he was "close to an agreement" with creditors. He also added the deal would be beneficial to Greece with no impingement on pensions, salaries, banks or deposits in the proposed deal.

In the meantime, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has called on Greece and its creditors to intensify efforts to find a solution to the financial crisis, while underlining the risks to the global economy from probable Greek default and exit from the eurozone.

Light Sweet Crude Oil futures for July delivery, the most actively traded contract, dropped $0.52 or 0.9 percent, to settle at $57.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday.

Crude prices for July delivery scaled a high of $58.95 a barrel intraday and a low of $57.43.

On Tuesday, crude oil for July delivery plunged $1.69 or 2.8 percent, to settle at $58.03 a barrel, on a strong dollar following a slew of some mostly upbeat economic data from the U.S.

The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. unit against six major currencies, traded at 97.40 on Wednesday, up from its previous close of 97.22 on Tuesday in late North American trade. The dollar scaled a high of 97.78 intraday and a low of 96.89.

The euro trended higher against the dollar at $1.0890 on Wednesday, as compared to its previous close of $1.0873 in North American trade late Tuesday. The euro scaled a high of $1.0930 intraday and a low of $1.0820.

On the economic front, a measure of future economic activity in Germany, the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index rose 0.5 percent to 108.5 in March. In February, the index had risen 0.7 percent. It was the fifth consecutive month of rise in March, with widespread strength among components, signaling the growth momentum could improve in coming months, a survey from the Conference Board showed Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank maintained the level of Emergency Liquidity Assistance provided for Greek banks, a report said citing sources on Wednesday. Greece has not requested to raise the ceiling as it has an unused liquidity buffer of EUR 3 billion under the ELA program. The Greece central bank has provided around EUR 80.2 billion to lenders.