Passengers wait for their flights at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv on August 6, 2024, amid regional tensions during the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.
Gil Cohen-magen | Afp | Getty Images
U.S. crude oil futures rose more than 1% on Thursday to top $76 per barrel as positive labor data eased recession fears and simmering Middle East tensions further boosted prices.
West Texas Intermediate bounced back after crude inventories fell for a sixth straight week. The labor market reading, which may signal positive demand, for the time being overshadowed recession fears that pushed U.S. crude oil to six-month lows earlier in the week.
Weekly unemployment claims fell to 233,000 in the week ended Aug. 3, the Labor Department said Thursday, a decline of 17,000 compared with the previous week and below the number expected on Wall Street.
The oil market is now waiting to see whether Iran will follow through on its threat to strike Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.
Here are Thursday’s closing energy prices:
- West Texas Intermediate September contract: $76.19 per barrel, up 96 cents, or 1.28%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil has risen 6.34%.
- Brent October contract: $79.16 per barrel, up 83 cents, or 1.06%. Year to date, the global benchmark has gained 2.75%.
- RBOB Gasoline September contract: $2.39 per gallon, up 4 cents, or 1.78%. Year to date, gasoline is up 14.1%.
- Natural Gas September contract: $2.12 per thousand cubic feet, up 1 cent, or 0.71%. Year to date, gas is down 15.39%.
Several international airlines have canceled flights to Israel as tensions in the region simmer.
“Oil continues to be a show-me story for geopolitical risk,” Ryan Grabinski, an analyst at Strategas, told clients in a note Wednesday.
“Regardless of the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, particularly with Iran and Israel, there has been no meaningful disruption to the flow of crude oil in the region,” Grabinski wrote.
