WTI records weekly loss
- Oil settles off lows but down for the day and the week
- US dollar gives up gains during the New York session
Oil prices managed to close the day away from daily lows as the dollar surrendered most of its post-nonfarm payrolls gains during the American afternoon.
The barrel of crude oil fell to a daily low of $64.47 dragged by dollar’s rally in the wake of a stronger-than-expected US labor report, but then turned higher to settle at $65.45 a barrel, 0.53% down on the day and around 1% lower for the week.
On Wednesday, EIA data showed US crude supplies rose 6.8 million barrels last week, which marked the first increase in 11 weeks.
US jobs report came in stronger-than-expected
The greenback strengthened across the board, weighing on commodity prices, after the US nonfarm payrolls report showed the economy added 200,000 new jobs in January, above the 180,000 expected and following a revised 160,000 job gain in December. The unemployment rate remained flat at 4.1% as expected. In addition, the key average hourly earnings – a proxy for wage inflation - rose at an annualized 2.9%, above initial forecasts.
Stronger-than-expected data also pushed the 10-year US Treasury yields to multi-year highs as it fueled expectations of a March rate hike by the Fed.
Author
Ani Salama
FXStreet
Ani Salama is an Economist specialized in financial markets and statistics analysis. In 2010, she joined FXstreet where she now contributes with the news section.
