CNBC: Oil prices fall 4% on skepticism over deal to freeze output
Oil futures sank about 4 percent on Friday, with the market growing increasingly skeptical that a looming deal to freeze crude production can help clear a global glut.
Brent crude for June delivery fell $1.62, or 4 percent, to $38.71 a barrel by 9:20 a.m. ET (1257 GMT). The May contract, which expired on Thursday, settled up 34 cents at $39.60 a barrel. Brent rose 6 percent in the first quarter, its first such increase since a 15 percent rally in the second quarter of 2015.
U.S. crude fell $1.45, or 3.8 percent, to $36.89 a barrel after settling up 2 cents on Thursday. Prices rose almost 4 percent from January through March, also the first quarterly gain since surging nearly 25 percent in the second quarter of last year.
Futures extended losses after the U.S. Labor Department reported the United States added 215,000 jobs in March, above expectations for a gain of 205,000 positions.
