Investing.com --
Investing.com -- Oil prices jumped around 40c after the U.S. government’s monthly labor market report cast a slightly more favorable light on the state of the economy than a succession of dire business surveys earlier in the week.
By 9:25 AM ET (1125 GMT), West Texas Intermediate blend futures were at $52.98 a barrel, up from $52.60 directly before the news. That's a rise of 1.0% from late Thursday’s levels, but is down a little after spiking to $53.30.
The international benchmark Brent was at $58.47, up 1.4% on the day.
The labor market report showed that the U.S. economy had created more jobs than thought in August and that, while hiring slowed in September, it didn’t fall off a cliff as some had expected after reading business surveys from the Institute of Supply Management this week.
The ISM’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to a 10-year low, while its non-manufacturing PMI fell to the lowest in three years.
The bounce is taking the edge off what had promised to be one of the worst weeks of the year for crude, in which the easing of geopolitical risks in the Middle East had combined with a weakening demand picture to provoke fears of a new glut.
Some, however, think that a premium on supply risks is still warranted.
“Oil markets are focusing on severe macro risks, but are also shrugging off the most heightened geopolitical risk in years,” newswires cited Citigroup (NYSE:C) analysts including Ed Morse as saying in a report. “As markets shed just about any consideration of supply risk, attention stays focused on what is nearly universally expected to be a significantly weaker year of demand growth.”
Earlier Friday, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva had told Bloomberg TV that the so-called OPEC+ group would look at making additional output cuts to keep the market in balance if necessary.
“Everybody agrees in OPEC that we need to stabilize the market. We cannot allow prices just to plummet,” Sylva said.
Elsewhere, gasoline futures rose 1.6% to $1.5808 a gallon, while Natural Gas Futures futures fell 2.2% to $2.28 per 10,000 MM Btu.