(New York) Oil prices ended higher on Friday, pulled by a technical rebound as well as by a US employment indicator that suggests less brutal monetary tightening than expected.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in May gained 1.45%, to close at 82.78 dollars.
As for the barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), with maturity in April, it appreciated by 1.26%, to 76.68 dollars.
After the start of the session in decline, prices rose thanks to the monthly US employment report, which reported 311,000 job creations, above the 225,000 projected by economists.
“At the same time, unemployment is on the rise (3.6%) and wages have decelerated,” explained Bart Melek of TD Securites. “This suggests that the Fed (US central bank) is not going to be as aggressive as expected”, which could spare oil demand.
A feeling reinforced by the bankruptcy of the American bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which worries investors and could encourage the Federal Reserve to be cautious, according to Edward Moya, of Oanda.
“This led to cover buyouts” from speculative traders who had bet on falling prices, the analyst said.
The market also benefited from a technical rebound after WTI and Brent fell earlier to their lowest level in two weeks, noted Bart Melek.
Black gold was also driven by the decline in the dollar, said Edward Moya.
Another positive element is the information from the Bloomberg agency that China has bought more than six million barrels of crude from the United States and Canada to supply its refineries, a sign of an acceleration in Chinese demand.
But, for Bart Melek, prices should remain stuck, in the short term, in the tight range within which they have been evolving since the beginning of the year.
The uncertainty about global demand, linked to the economic situation, as well as the absence of signals of a drop in Russian exports mean that the “fundamentals” of the market are “not particularly robust”, according to the analyst.