Crude ends marginally higher

Prices rise following better than expected job data

Crude prices ended marginally higher at Nymex on Friday, 07 October 011. A better than expected job data helped prices end higher even though sovereign downgrades of Italy and Spain by Fitch rating weighed on the same earlier during the day.

Light and sweet crude for November delivery rose $0.39 (0.5%) to $82.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday. Prices closed 4.8% higher for the week. For the month of September, oil futures lost 11%, and for the quarter, crude incurred losses of 17%. It was the worst quarterly performance for crude in almost two years.



Among economic data expected for the day, the latest job report showed that the labor market showed some small signs of improvement in September as job growth came in above market expectations and there were positive revisions to past months. The Labor Department reported that employment outside the farm sector grew by 103,000 workers in the month while Wall Street had expected a tepid 59,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls for the month. The gain in September was due in part to the return of about 45,000 workers following a strike against Verizon communications by unionized workers.

The unemployment rate held steady at 9.1% as expected. Average hourly earnings increased 0.2% to $23.12 in September, reversing a drop in August.

In the latest weekly inventory report, EIA reported on Wednesday a decline of 4.7 million barrels in the week ended 30 September as against an expectation of a rise of around 2.5 million barrels. The EIA also reported that gasoline inventories fell 1.1 million barrels, and supplies of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, decreased by 700,000 barrels.

Among other energy products on Friday, November gasoline declined 4 cents, or 1.4%, at $2.65 a gallon. Heating oil for the same month's delivery retreated less than a penny, or 0.1%, at $2.86 a gallon. On the week, heating oil and gasoline rose 2.5% and 0.8% respectively. That was the first weekly gain for heating oil in three weeks, but the second consecutive week of gains for gasoline.

November natural gas declined 12 cents, or 3.3%, to settle at $3.48 per million British thermal units, leading losses among energy products. On the week, natural gas lost 5.2%.