News wire — Oil prices nudged higher on Friday with U.S. inflation data showing some signs of slowing price rises, but for the month, oil was on course for its weakest performance since November.
Brent futures, which have risen nearly 6% this week, were up 26 cents, or 0.3% at $79.53 a barrel by 10:56 a.m. EDT (1456 GMT). West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) rose 37 cents, or 0.5% to $74.74, having gained about 8% so far this week.
“The prolonged economic scarring of the last month will likely slow the economy, if not cause a recession, and lower interest rate expectations are not enough to support oil prices in the short term,” said Craig Erlam, senior markets analyst at OANDA.
Oil prices were also buoyed after producers shut in or reduced output at several oilfields in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq following a halt to the northern export pipeline.
With prices recovering from recent lows, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia are likely to stick to their existing output deal at a meeting on Monday, sources said.
OPEC pumped 28.90 million barrels per day (bpd) this month, a Reuters survey found, down 70,000 bpd from February. Output is down more than 700,000 bpd from September.
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