Crude Oil Ends Higher After OPEC Meet, Sheds 1.9% For Week

(RTTNews) - U.S. crude oil snapped a two-day loss to end sharply higher on Friday, after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to maintain its current production levels even as concerns of supply glut persisted.

Crude oil futures dropped about 1.9 percent for the week, after 11 consecutive weeks of losses.

At its meeting in Vienna, the cartel agreed not to ramp up production, putting a floor under oil prices after a few days of losses. Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi indicated the group will maintain its production ceiling of 30 million barrel-a-day as widely anticipated.

Meanwhile, rig count in the U.S. actively drilling oil dropped by 4 units to 642 as on June 5, according to oil industry service provider Baker Hughes on Friday. This indicates a massive decline of 894 rigs from a year ago.

Light Sweet Crude Oil futures for July delivery, the most actively traded contract, jumped $1.13 or 2.0 percent, to settle at $58.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday.

Crude prices for July delivery scaled a high of $59.20 a barrel intraday and a low of $56.83.

On Thursday, crude oil plunged $1.64 or 2.8 percent, to settle at $58.00 a barrel, with investors focused on the critical meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Friday in Vienna.

On the economic front, employment in the U.S. increased much more than anticipated in May, a report from the Labor Department showed Friday. Non-farm payroll employment jumped by 280,000 jobs in May compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 225,000 jobs.

While the increase in employment in April was downwardly revised to 221,000 jobs from 223,000 jobs, the employment growth in March was upwardly revised to 119,000 jobs from 85,000 jobs.

However, the report also showed that the unemployment rate inched up to 5.5 percent in May from a near seven-year low of 5.4 percent in April. The increase came as a surprise to economists, who had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged, but the uptick primarily reflected an increase in the size of the labor force.

In Europe, Germany's factory order growth exceeded expectations in April helped by foreign demand, data from Destatis revealed Friday. Factory orders increased 1.4 percent month-on-month, faster than the 1.1 percent growth in March and a 0.5 percent rise forecast by economists. It was also the fastest growth since December, when it rose 3.3 percent.

France's foreign trade deficit declined more-than-expected in April, as exports rose and imports fell, figures from the Customs Office showed Friday. The trade deficit declined to EUR 3.0 billion in April from EUR 4.4 billion in the previous month. Economists expected a shortfall of EUR 3.95 billion.

The leading index for Japan, which measures the future economic activity, increased as expected in April, preliminary figures from the Cabinet Office showed Friday. The index rose to 107.2 in April from 106.0 in the previous month. This is the second consecutive rise for the index and in line with economists' expectations.

Meanwhile, Japan's foreign reserves decreased in May on lower currency reserves and special drawing rights. The country's foreign reserve assets declined to $1.246 trillion as of May 31, 2015 from $1.250 trillion at April end. At the end of May 2014, the reserves were at $1.284 trillion.