Crude climbs up on supply decline

Prices gain 2.5% on a weekly basis Crude Oil futures finished higher at Nymex on Friday, 04 January 2013. Prices rose finding support from a hefty drop in last week's U.S. crude supplies, but also pressured by a stronger dollar, as traders weighed concern over a potential end to the Federal Reserve's monetary stimulus this year. Light and sweet crude-oil futures for delivery in February tacked on 17 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $93.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices, which traded between $91.52 and $93.15, climbed 2.5% for the holiday-shortened week. The latest weekly inventory report by EIA showed that crude supplies fell by 11 million barrels. Market had expected a 1 million-barrel decline. The report also showed that motor gasoline supplies rose by 2.6 million barrels, while distillate stocks climbed 4.6 million barrels. Market had forecast a rise of 2.3 million barrels for gasoline inventories and a climb of 1.6 million barrels in distillate supplies, which include heating oil. Among economic data expected, the Labor Department said the U.S. added 155,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls for December, slightly short of the 160,000 forecast by market. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.8%, suggesting the budget battle in Washington over the fiscal cliff didn't do much damage to the economy. The pace of hiring in December almost perfectly matched the level of job growth over the past two years. The U.S. has added an average of 153,000 jobs each month in both 2011 and 2012. The unemployment rate, originally reported as 7.7% in November, was revised to 7.8% after the Labor Department's annual seasonal adjustment conducted each December. The minutes of the latest meeting of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee were released on Thursday afternoon and they somewhat surprisingly revealed some FOMC members believe that quantitative easing of U.S. monetary policy should be wound down during 2013. On Friday, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, rose by 0.1%. Among other energy products on Friday, February gasoline futures lost 3 cents, or 1.2%, to end at $2.76 a gallon, up 0.2% from a week ago. Heating oil for delivery in the same month weakened by less than a penny, or 0.2%, to $3.02 per gallon, down 0.1% for the week. February natural-gas futures rose 9 cents, or 2.8%, to $3.29 per million British thermal units, while prices for the March contract rose 9 cents, or 2.8%, to $3.30 on Friday. But the contracts were both down over 5% for the week. The inventory report showed that natural-gas supplies fell 135 billion cubic feet for the week ended 28 December 2012. Market had forecast a fall of between 133 billion and 137 billion.