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1st LD Writethru: Oil prices gain amid upbeat job data

Xinhua, March 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

Oil prices rose Friday as newly-released jobs U.S. report came out better-than-expected.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 242,000 in February, topping market expectations, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.9 percent, the U.S. Labor Department announced Friday.

In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls declined 3 cents to 25.35 U.S. dollars, following an increase of 12 cents in January. Average hourly earnings have risen by 2.2 percent over the year.

Analysts believed that the upbeat jobs data pointed to a modest recovery in the U.S. economic growth, which is supportive to the oil market.

The market also got a boost after Saudi Arabia and Russia announced recently that they would halt production increases as long as other major producers followed suit.

The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery moved up 1.35 dollars to settle at 35.92 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for May delivery increased 1.65 dollars to close at 38.72 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Endit