Oil settles day higher but lower on the week
NEW YORK: Oil settled higher Friday after a tug-of-war session in which investors initially shrugged off U.S. job gains focusing instead on lingering concerns about the global economy.Crude futures ended the week at $86.88 per barrel, up from $86.63 on Thursday, on the New York Mercantile Exchange - a $8.82 drop from the week before.Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude has declined $12.71, about 13 percent, in the last 10 days. A drop in oil on Thursday outpaced a similar tumble in stocks, losing nearly 6 percent, its biggest one-day decline in three months.
Prices tumbled as a series of weak economic data rolled in. The U.S. said the economy grew only 1.3 percent in the second quarter, while manufacturing reports pointed to weaker activity in the U.S. and China. The U.S. debt ceiling debate ended with plans to cut spending by $2.4 trillion over the next decade, while Europe continued to struggles with enormous debt.Another recession, investors feared, could be right around the corner."There's just a lot of pessimism out there now," Andrew Lebow, a senior vice president and oil broker at MF Global.
A decline in the U.S. unemployment rate to 9.1 percent was one bright spot on Friday.Brent crude, which is used to price many international varieties, also climbed $2.12 to settle at $109.37 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London. That wasn't because of an expectation for increased oil demand, however. An oil pipeline exploded in Iran, potentially impacting oil supplies for the world's third-largest oil exporter. The cause of the blast is still under investigation.
In other Nymex trading for September contracts, heating oil added 4.78 cents to $2.9417 per gallon and gasoline futures rose 6.8 cents to settle at $2.8052 per gallon. Natural gas was unchanged, settling at $3.941 per 1,000 cubic feet. - AP
