Forexpros – Crude oil futures moved higher in Asian trade Friday, lifted by a German parliamentary vote to approve expansion of the European rescue fund, as well as better than expected labor numbers in the U.S.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange light, sweet crude futures for November delivery traded at USD82.97 a barrel during early Asian trade, rising 0.10%, after hitting a daily low of USD82.86.
On Thursday, German lawmakers voted to approve an expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility, with only 85 of 523 legislators opposing the vote.
The number of opposing votes from within Chancellor Angela’s Merkel’s center-right coalition, was viewed as a barometer of her strength in negotiating new details of the plan to address Europe’s debt crisis.
Later in the day, the U.S. Department of Labor released data for the past week, showing that the number of Americans filing for unemployment assistance fell more than expected, to a seasonally adjusted 391,000 from 428,000 the prior week.
Market expectation were for the weekly figure to drop to 420,000.
Wall Street retreated from early session gains to close mixed on Thursday; The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.30% to 11,154.00, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.43% to 2,480.76, while the S&P 500 added 0.81% to 1,160.40.
Elsewhere, a U.S. Department of Energy report showed that oil demand in July fell by nearly 4% year on year.
And global investor Morgan Stanley cut its forecast for Brent crude by USD30 to USD100 a barrel, citing a resumption of Libyan oil production and a weak economic outlook.
A falling U.S. dollar also provided downside support for oil futures, as dollar-denominated futures contracts tend to rise when the dollar falls.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, lost 0.06% to 78.44.
On the ICE Futures Exchange Brent oil futures for November delivery added 0.11% to trade at USD104.84.
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