MC:Oil edges up slightly in second straight day of gains
Brent crude oil prices closed below USD 100 a barrel on a second day of modest gains on Friday, after surpassing USD 100 earlier in the session and recovering some ground after a steep six-day decline.
Brent has fallen nearly 10 percent since the beginning of April, a decline that accelerated earlier this week after a cut in oil demand forecasts by global energy agencies and weak economic data from the United States and China, the world's two largest oil consumers.
Friday marked the second day of gains for Brent after it closed at USD 97.69 on Wednesday, the lowest level since July 2012 and a price that analysts said was attractive to bargain hunters.
Analysts said the market seemed to be stabilizing after a week of heavy liquidation in which prices tumbled from over USD 103 as of last Friday, along with a rout in gold and industrial metals.
"Today's gains looked like a follow-up to yesterday's correction and one that could possibly be maintained for a couple more sessions," Jim Ritterbusch, president at Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois, wrote in a research note.
Brent crude settled up 52 cents a barrel at USD 99.65, down from an intraday high of USD 100.33. US crude gained 28 cents to settle at USD 88.01.
The May US crude contract expires Monday, April 22.
Most USD stocks rose on Friday, taking the oil complex with them. USD equities back a day after the S&P 500 closed below its 50-day moving average for the first time this year, with help from some blue-chip tech names.
"This remains a market very much driven by the equity markets. They've been rebounding and we're just knocking along with that," said Kyle Cooper, managing director of research at IAF Advisors in Houston, Texas.
"Crude inventories are at an all-time high, but we're up today," he added. "There are some people who want to believe it's a physical market, but it's not. It's a financial market."
Yet worries about global demand and oversupply persist, and market participants remained cautious as to whether the recovery had legs. Front-month oil prices have fallen more than 3 percent for the week.
"Oil prices were technically oversold so we are seeing some buyers coming in but they are not great volumes," said Rob Montefusco, an oil broker at Sucden Financial in London. "There is nothing to suggest we can go up on a sustained basis - we were just overdone on the downside."
