Oil prices recovered slightly on Thursday morning, but held near their lowest level in around ten months amid concerns over strong shale output growth in the U.S.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude August contract was at $42.78 a barrel in early New York trade, up 25 cents, or around 0.6%, after falling to its lowest since August 11 at $42.05 a day earlier.

Elsewhere, Brent oil for August delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London tacked on 40 cents to $45.22 a barrel. The global benchmark hit $44.35 on Wednesday, a level not seen since November 14.

Oil prices have been under pressure in recent weeks as concern over rising U.S. shale output offset production cuts by OPEC and non-OPEC members.

Meanwhile, The USD was little changed on Thursday, as markets showed no reaction to the previous session’s upbeat U.S. housing sector data and turned their attention to the upcoming report on weekly jobless claims at 12:30 GMT.

Global stock markets stumbled on Thursday, as investors reacted to ongoing weakness in the oil market.

On Wall Street, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures pointed to a drop of 8 points, or roughly 0.1%, at the open, the blue-chip Dow futures shed 28 points, or about 0.1%, while the S&P 500 futures ticked down 5 points, or around 0.2%.

In Europe, stocks fell in a broad decline, on track for a third straight session of declines, as the oil and gas sector struggled.

Earlier, Asian shares ended mixed.

The first day of a two-day summit of European Union leaders kicks off in Brussels on Thursday.

At the summit, leaders are set to focus on two main objectives, strengthening the EU and protecting its citizens. Therefore, key topics will include terrorism, security, globalization and climate change.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to make an appearance at the summit, where she is likely to inform other leaders of the U.K.'s intentions when it comes to exiting the political-economic bloc.

Senate Republicans plan to release their version of healthcare reform legislation at 13:30 GMT, the first time the public will get to see what they have been working on behind closed doors.

The bill is expected to roll back the Obamacare expansion of the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor and reshape subsidies to low-income people buying private insurance.

The Congressional Budget Office is then expected to release its analysis of the bill early next week, with a Senate vote possible before the July 4 recess.