September NYMEX crude settled 25 cents higher at $86.88/barrel Friday after the contract gyrated in a nearly $6 range and touched a seven-month low of $82.87/b.
September Brent on ICE hit an intra-session low of $104.30/b, lowest for the ICE front-month contract since February 21.
US July non-farm payrolls grew 117,000 while the unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage point to 9.1%, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consensus estimates had projected an increase of 85,000 non-farm payroll jobs.
Private payrolls rose 154,000 while revisions for May and June added another 56,000 jobs.
"While the July Employment Report may have been solid, it was not strong enough to engender justified optimism about the health of the US economy," Jason Schenker, president of Prestige Economics, said in a report. "It is one data point. This report is not a game-changer."
News that the European Central Bank was willing to buy Italian and Spanish bonds based on each country's attempt to rein in debt arrested the selling in equities and put a floor in oil futures. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about 67 points just before 3 p.m. EDT, while the S&P 500
"With respect to the Euro area, the presence of Euro system monetary authorities in the Spanish and Italian bond markets today is a short-term intervention that will stem speculative market pressures and improve short-term momentum," Lena Komileva, head of G10 strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman said in a report. "Evidence of a measurable progress in the Euro zone's management of its crisis, visible in tighter peripheral bond risk premia, will give global markets some breathing room."
US product markets tracked Brent for most of the session. September heating oil settled 4.78 cents higher at $2.9417/gal and September RBOB settled ended the week at $2.8052/ga, up 6.80 cents.
