MW: Oil prices rebound; traders focus on Greek aid, US jobs data
Crude prices had dropped nearly 4% on Thursday as stocks also sold off
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Oil futures rebounded on Friday after their steep selloff in the previous session, as Germany's lower house of parliament approved aid for Greece and traders awaited key U.S. jobs data.
Crude oil for June delivery rose 66 cents, or 0.8%, to $77.77 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. The contract earlier hit an intraday high of $78.24 a barrel.
On Thursday, oil prices dropped nearly 4%, ending at their lowest level in more than two months.
"Prices have been able to recover a little but are still trading $10 lower than at the start of the week," said analysts at Commerzbank AG.
"The debt crisis in the eurozone is obviously a reason for many investors to critically question the price level of crude oil," they wrote in a note to clients.
The scale of the price slump demonstrates how much oil futures were "driven up by speculative investors," according to Commerzbank.
In Berlin, the lower house of parliament approved legislation allowing Germany to contribute 22.4 billion euros to the international bailout package for Greece. Another vote in the upper house is due later in the day. Read more on the votes.
The euro (CUR_EURUSD 1.2747, +0.0118, +0.9344%) also rebounded, rising 1% to $1.2766 in recent trading. U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher opening on Wall Street after the previous session's steep declines.
Traders are awaiting a report on nonfarm payrolls due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expect 185,000 nonfarm jobs were created in April, up from 162,000 in March, with an unemployment rate steady at 9.7%.