While oil futures climbed Friday as tensions in the Middle East continued and offset the impact of a stronger US dollar, the session’s gain wasn’t enough and prices saw their first weekly loss in three weeks.
The rise in the value of the US dollar, following the strong jobs data, did limit the session’s gains, especially for the key American indicator, West Texas Intermediate (WTI).
Prices were given a boost early in the week with OPEC and Russia extending their production cap of 1.2 million barrels a day until next March, but then the July 4 holiday and the June jobs report hit the momentum.
On Friday, August West Texas Intermediate crude rose 17 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $US57.51 a barrel in New York.
Despite the 1.9% rise on Wednesday, before Thursday’s Independence Day holiday, WTI lost 1.6% for the week.
The global marker, September Brent futures climbed by 93 cents, or 1.5%, to $US64.23 a barrel in Europe. Brent, which settled 0.8% lower on Thursday, ended down by the same amount over the week.
The US added 244,000 new jobs in June, up sharply from the 72,000 reported for May. The 12-month rate of wage gains was unchanged at 3.1%, again undermining fears of a wages surge from the strong jobs market.
The US Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported that oil stocks fell by 1.1 million barrels for the week ended June 28. US daily output was steady at around 12.2 million barrels a day.
Separate data from Baker Hughes also released Wednesday ahead of the usual release on Friday, revealed the number of US rigs actively drilling for oil fell by 5 to 788. That followed two consecutive weeks of increases.
