Oil prices climbed more than 1% on Friday after better-than-expected U.S. employment data, though both benchmarks fell more than 3% on the week on U.S. interest rate hike jitters.
Brent rose $1.19, or 1.5%, to $82.78 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was up 96 cents, or 1.3%, at $76.68.
Expectations of further rate hikes in the world’s largest economy and in Europe have clouded the global growth outlook and driven both crude benchmarks down this week.
However, the U.S. Federal Reserve may have less reason to raise interest rates as aggressively as some had feared, after a government report on Friday rekindled hopes of easing inflation amid signs the pandemic-disrupted labor market is normalizing.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell has warned of higher and potentially faster rate hikes, saying the central bank was wrong in initially thinking inflation was “transitory”. Its next monetary policy meeting is planned for March 21-22.
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