Futures Movers: Oil ends at 3-month highs, logging 5th straight weekly gain

Price action

• West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery
  CL00,
  +0.41%

  CL.1,
  +0.41%

  CLU23,
  +0.41%
  gained 49 cents to end at $80.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after the U.S. benchmark ended above the $80-a-barrel threshold Thursday for the first time since April. WTI logged a 4.6% weekly rise.

• September Brent crude
  BRNU23,
  -0.22%,
  the global benchmark, rose 75 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $84.99 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, for a 4.8% weekly gain. October Brent
  BRN00,
  -0.14%

  BRNV23,
  -0.14%,
  the most actively traded contract, advanced 62 cents, or 0.7%, to $84.41 a barrel.

• Back on Nymex, August gasoline
  RBQ23,
  +0.02%
  saw a 0.2% gain, ending at $2.956 a gallon, posting a 5.5% weekly rise to finish at its highest since Oct. 27. August heating oil
  HOQ23,
  +1.31%
  rose 1.4% to $2.9568 a gallon, for a 7.8% weekly gain.

• September natural gas
  NGU23,
  +1.73%
  rose 1.7% to $2.638 per million British thermal units, trimming its weekly decline to 2.6%.

Market driver

Both WTI and Brent closed at their highest since mid-April. Expectations major central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, were at or near the end of a series of interest rate hikes have helped boost sentiment, analysts said. The Fed and ECB each delivered quarter percentage point rate rises this week, but indicated that future moves would depend on incoming economic data, helping to soothe fears that further monetary tightening would tip the global economy into recession. Economic data out of the U.S., including a stronger-than-expected second-quarter gross domestic product reading on Thursday, also helped soothe nerves.

Read: Why are gas prices going up again? Brace for further increases, analysts say

Oil bulls look for crude to remain supported as effects of Saudi Arabia’s voluntary cut of 1 million barrels a day of production in July and August are felt.

What may prove more important is whether Saudi Arabia intends to extend its production cut by another month until the end of September, said Carsten Fritsch, commodity strategist at Commerzbank, in a note.

“If so, the oil market would be undersupplied to an even greater extent in the third quarter, which would give further tailwind to oil prices. A sudden end to the voluntary cuts, causing production to surge by 1 million barrels per day in September, would presumably put the oil price under pressure, on the other hand,” Fritsch wrote.

Since it is in Saudi Arabia’s interest to at least keep oil prices stable near current levels, Riyadh could decide to gradually withdraw production cuts, he said.

Oil-field-services company Baker Hughes Friday afternoon said the number of U.S. oil rigs fell by one this week to 529. Compared with a year ago, the oil-rig count has fallen by 76.