Crude oil trades at around USD 91/bbl

By Gautam Broker, Research Analyst at CNBC-TV18

Commodity cues US jobless claims were at a 10-week high. Initial jobless claims for the week ended January 8 totaled 445,000, against expected 415,000. Continuing claims dropped to a two-year low of 3.88 million, due to the expiration of unemployment benefits. Crude oil prices were around USD 91/bbl in Asian trade today. Brent Crude however continued to be closer to USD 99/barrel. Differential at USD 7.5/barrel was at multi month highs. OPEC will call emergency meet if oil breaches USD 100/barrel for sustained period. Gold fell to hold 20 day moving average. Gold saw technical selling and was down 1% this morning. SPDR holdings were also down over 6 tonnes in last 2 days. Firm Euro is seen capping any rebound. Base metals reacted to disappointing jobless claims. Shanghai Copper was down 1% this morning. China tightening fears were also an overhang. Data to watch
-Consumer Price Index
-Retail Sales
-Industrial Production
-Consumer Sentiment Nirmal Bang advised to:
- Sell nickel MCX January contract at Rs 1150 per kg, with a target of Rs 1175 and keep a stoploss at Rs 1138