Crude-oil futures extended their gains Friday, as rising global equities rekindled hopes of economic recovery, while OPEC's weekend meeting had investors guessing whether the cartel will lower output further in an attempt to boost prices. Oil prices have been especially volatile this week. On Thursday, crude rallied more than 11% -- after having tumbled 10% in the previous two sessions. Crude for April delivery gained 62 cents, or 1.3%, to $47.64 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. "Focus remains on the upcoming OPEC meeting, while the recent strength in stocks have underpinned demand for commodities overall on hopes of signs of a recovery," said analysts at Action Economics. U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher opening on Wall Street, on the heels of a three-day winning streak. See Indications. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls about a third of the world's oil production, will meet in Vienna on Sunday. There is debate within the cartel about whether or not to cut output further, with some members pushing for full compliance with earlier quota cuts rather than announcing a new reduction. Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global, said he thinks it likely that OPEC will go with a reduction of 500,000 barrels a day, as opposed to a cut twice that size, in light of crude's latest move higher "The key question is what happens on Monday, and whether the markets will experience a modest sell-off once the impact of the OPEC decision is behind us," Meir said in a research note. OPEC has already agreed to a reduction in output of 4.2 million barrels a day since September, equivalent to about 5% of global oil demand. Also on Globex, April reformulated gasoline rose 2 cents to $1.37 a gallon and April heating oil gained 1 cent to $1.24 a gallon. Natural gas for April delivery stood at $3.98 per million British thermal units, off 1 cent.

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