Light and sweet crude oil futures for January delivery are trading down 23 cents at $ 88.86 per barrel in Asia today. Yesterday, it closed higher by $0.18 at $89.09/barrel. Prices rose to a high of $90.33/barrel during intraday trading.
The focus of the market place remains on the “fiscal cliff” that is fast approaching. U.S. lawmakers are still jousting on the matter, with not much new on Monday. The market place presently perceives there will be a last-minute agreement among U.S. lawmakers to avoid the fiscal cliff.
FOMC will meet next week having it last Federal Reserve meeting of the year, on December 10 and 11. The “Operation Twist” program ends and the FOMC members must decide whether to extend the bond-buying program. Many believe the Fed will continue to purchase U.S. Treasuries and implement “QE4” at next week's meeting.
On the economic front from US yesterday, business among U.S. manufacturers contracted in November and activity fell to the lowest level since July 2009, according to the closely followed ISM index. The Institute for Supply Management’s index fell to 49.5% from 51.7% in October. U.S. construction spending, however, jumped 1.4% in October.
MCX December crude oil futures may open today’s session near Rs 4870 levels with support around Rs 4840 levels.
