By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures on Friday extended a winning run into a third day but gains moderated after data showed consumer sentiment at its worst in three decades.
Providing support for prices, data showed growth in the nation’s retail sales for July and U.S. equities, a second-by-second barometer of economic conditions and sentiment, traded higher.
Crude for September delivery CL1U +0.69% rose 31 cents, or 1%, to $86.54 a barrel. It traded as high as $87.37 and as low as $84.02 a barrel.
In a sign of an economic uptick, sales at U.S. retailers rose 0.5% in July. Sales figures for June and May were revised higher.
Investors also got some bad news on the consumer- sentiment front, however. The University of Michigan/Thomson Reuters gauge dropped to 54.9 in August — the lowest reading since May 1980 — down from 63.7 in July.
Oil prices had advanced $2.83 a barrel in Thursday’s U.S. session to settle at $85.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the best finish in nearly a week, buoyed in part by bargain hunting and the release of U.S. jobless-claims data.
The data showed the number of people who submitted initial applications for unemployment benefits fell below 400,000 for the first time since early April. See report on U.S. jobs data.
Other energy products were mixed Friday, with gasoline turning lower. The September contract RB1U +0.15% declined less than a penny, or 0.3%, to $2.82 a gallon. September heating oil HO1U +0.48% added 1 cent, or 0.3%, to $2.91 a gallon.
Claudia Assis is a San Francisco-based reporter for MarketWatch.
