Thanks in part to encouraging retail sales figures from the U.S. Government, light sweet crude oil for November delivery gained more than three percent Friday.
The WTI settled at $86.80 a barrel after peaking at $87.42 and bottoming out at $83.77.
Friday morning the U.S. Commerce Department reported that U.S. retail and food service sales for September rose by 1.1 percent (±0.5 percent) from the previous month. The advance monthly estimate of $395.5 billion is 7.9 percent higher than the comparable figure for September 2010, according to the agency.
The Commerce Department added that September gasoline stations sales gained 20.3 percent (±1.7 percent) year on year.
Also providing a boost for crude oil was optimism that a meeting of G 20 finance ministers in Paris over the weekend will advance a resolution to the euro zone debt crisis. As a result, the euro strengthened against the dollar and crude oil became a better value for investors holding currencies other than the greenback.
The Brent contract price gained 3.2 percent to end the day at $114.68 a barrel. It fluctuated from $113.80 to $114.74 during Friday's trading.
Posting a more impressive day on day percentage gain than crude oil was November natural gas, which rose nearly five percent to settle at $3.70 per thousand cubic feet. Gas futures, which recently hit their lowest levels for 2011, recovered as investors seized a buying opportunity as they prepare for anticipated growing demand for heating.
The front month contract for natural gas traded within a range from $3.51 to $3.74. November gasoline also ended the day higher, settling at $2.82 a gallon. The intraday range for gasoline was $2.75 to $2.83.
Posted courtesy of Rigzone.Com
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