WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The price of crude oil moved down Tuesday morning as concerns over the euro zone debt situation overshadowed supply worries after EU's oil embargo of Iran. Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for March delivery, were down $0.54 to $99.04 a barrel. Yesterday, oil snapped it three session losing streak to close near $100 on supply concerns after the European Union agreed to enforce an oil embargo of Iran. This morning, the U.S. dollar was little changed around its 3-week low versus the euro and sterling. The buck was moving lower versus the Swiss franc and ticking higher against the yen. In economic news, private sector activity in the euro zone expanded for the first time in five months in January, the flash survey results from Markit Economics showed. The composite output index, that measures activity in both manufacturing and service sector, rose to 50.4 in January from 48.3 compared to economists' forecast for a modest improvement to 48.5. Separately, Eurostat said industrial new orders in the euro zone fell 1.3 percent month-on-month in November, partially offsetting the 1.5 percent growth in October. However, the decline was narrower than the 2.2 percent drop expected by economists. Today after the market hours, the API will release its report on U.S. crude oil inventories for the weekended January 20. Analysts expect crude oil inventories to gain 800,000 barrels last week.
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