Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil posted the biggest weekly gain since July on Friday after the U.S. and China agreed to hold trade talks in October.
According to MarketWatch on Friday, the fall in rig count, along with a government report issued a day earlier also showing a third week of falling domestic crude supplies, helped calm trade war-related worries about energy demand.
As at the time of report, Brent Crude oil was trading above $60 per barrel at $61.54 following a 0.97 percent increase equivalent to almost $1. For the U.S oil, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude, it gained $0.43 or 0.76 percent to trade at $56.73. As for the OPEC Basket, it saw a $1.61 increase of 2.73 percent to trade at $60.58.
Reports confirmed that the U.S. Labor Department on Friday announced that employers added 130,000 new jobs in August, dodging estimates by experts and adding to fears of a weakening economy.
Also, demand worries, the back and forth tariff war between the world’s top two economies worsened, and China moved to cut its reserve requirement.
The market also unraveled gains that were driven by a bullish U.S. petroleum inventory report Thursday which showed weekly stocks in crude and major fuels had declined nearly 10 million barrels.
From data gotten from Bloomberg on Friday, Business Post gathered that West Texas Intermediate oil for October delivery gained 22 cents to settle at $56.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was up 2.6 percent for the week.
Brent for November rose 59 cents to settle at $61.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange, ending the week up 1.8 percent. The global benchmark traded at a $5.11 premium to WTI for the same month.
