By Victor Reklaitis, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Oil futures strolled higher on Friday as traders continued to eye the Syrian conflict and also took in a weaker-than-expected jobs report.
Crude was on pace for a weekly gain of about 1.6%.
Oil for October delivery CLV3 +0.94% advanced $1.06, or 1%, to $109.43 a barrel in electronic trading. On Thursday, the contract gained 1.1% and settled above the $108 level, as a weekly government supply report roughly matched expectations.
“In view of the G20 summit and next week’s debate in the U.S. Congress, the Syrian crisis is the issue that continues to dominate the market,” said analysts at Commerzbank Commodity Research in a note early Friday.
Leaders from the Group of 20 nations are divided over whether to strike Syria. The Middle Eastern country isn’t a major oil producer, but a wider conflict could lead to supply disruptions in that oil-rich region.
The U.S. jobs report showed the economy added 169,000 jobs, missing expectations.
The soft reading fueled some speculation that the Federal Reserve is now less likely this month to start to reduce its stimulus, which have boosted riskier assets such as oil. Most economists had been expecting that tapering would start in September. Oil added to gains after the jobs report, after initially paring its gain.
October Brent crude UK:LCOV3 +0.44% rose 23 cents, or 0.2%, to $115.49 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, October natural gas NGV13 -0.39% fell a penny to $3.56 per million British thermal units, while October gasoline RBV3 +0.46% rose a penny to $2.85 a gallon. October heating oil HOV3 +0.55% advanced 2 cents to $3.16 a gallon.
