Oil settles after August jobs report By Investing.com

Investing.com — Oil prices were higher as investors weighed the non-farm payrolls report and factored in both a big draw in U.S. crude inventories and a planned output delay from producers OPEC+.

At 09:08 ET (1308 GMT), the contract added 0.7 percent to $73.16 a barrel, while futures (WTI) traded up 0.6 percent to $69.58 a barrel. barrel. Both contracts were on track to post declines for the week.

The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in August but rose from a sharply revised figure in July, according to Labor Department data that could factor into the Federal Reserve’s next policy decisions.

Nonfarm payrolls rose to 142,000 last month, up from a revised downward reading of 89,000 in July. Economists had called for a reading of 164,000, up from July’s initial mark of 114,000.

Friday’s release also showed the U.S. unemployment rate at 4.2 percent, compared with July’s figure of 4.3 percent. The level was in line with estimates.

On a monthly basis, growth in average hourly earnings also edged up to 0.4 percent, after contracting 0.1 percent in July.

After the release, bets that the Fed would introduce a deeper rate cut of 50 basis points — rather than a smaller cut of 25 basis points — rose. The prospect of lower interest rates is usually supportive of crude oil prices, as a fall in borrowing costs can theoretically help boost economic activity and broader oil demand.

Elsewhere, crude oil inventories fell by 6.9 million barrels to 418.3 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 30, according to the US Energy Information Administration on Thursday. Analysts had forecast a draw of 1 million barrels, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, the OPEC+ producer group said it had agreed to delay a planned increase in oil output to October and November.

Despite support from these developments, Brent settled to a more than one-year low on Thursday on lingering concerns about US and Chinese demand.