The dollar fell on Friday after the latest data revealed an increase in the U.S. jobless rate for the month of Feb.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures for April finished higher by $0.96, or approximately 1.3%, at $76.68 per barrel after three consecutive days of losses.
Oil futures have seen their losses for the week cut to less than 4% thanks to today’s sharp price increase.
Brent crude futures rose $1.03, or 1.26% to 82.62 per barrel just a few moments ago.
According to data from the Labor Department, the unemployment rate rose from 3.4% to 3.6% in the month of February. The unemployment rate was expected not to change.
The wage growth was 0.2% over the previous month and 4.6% over the past year, which is below expectations of 0.3% and 4,7% respectively.
The non-farm payroll jobs increased by 311,000 in February, after the January spike was revised to 504,000.
Economists expected that employment would increase by 205,000 jobs, compared to the initial report of 517,000 new jobs for the preceding month.
Russia’s decision in March to cut oil production by 500,000 bbls/day contributed to the rise in oil price.
Meanwhile,…
