Credit: Investing.com - After shooting higher during Thursday's U.S. session on the back of some encouraging economic data, oil futures gave back some of those gains in the early part of Friday's Asian session.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for February delivery slid 0.71% to USD89.48 per barrel in Asian trading Friday. Crude gained 0.2% to $90.13 a barrel during U.S. trade Thursday, a move that was helped in part by traders bidding up riskier assets due to some positive U.S. economic data points.
In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released the final reading of U.S. third-quarter GDP growth, which showed an increase of 3.1% topping the consensus estimate of 2.8%. Personal consumption increased 1.6%. That topped the estimate calling for an increase of 1.4%.
The National Association of Realtors said U.S. home sales jumped 5.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million in November up from a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.76 million in October. The November reading represents the highest level in three years.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve said its manufacturing index for December rose to 8.1 from negative 10.7 in November. Economists expected a December reading of 4.
Those three data points seemed to help traders overlook the fact that the Labor Department said weekly jobless claims rose by 17,000 last week to 361,000. Economists expected a reading of 360,000 new claims. The less volatile four-week moving average fell by 13,750 to 367,750, good for a two-month low. U.S. joblessness currently rests at a rate of 7.7%.
Oil futures are usually somewhat sensitive to U.S. economic data releases because the country is by far the world's largest oil consumer.
Elsewhere, Brent crude futures for February delivery traded on the ICE Futures Exchange slid 0.2% to USD109.89 per barrel.
Investing.com - Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the Forex, Commodities, Futures and the Stock Market including real-time data streaming, a comprehensive economic calendar, as well as financial news and technical & fundamental analysis by in-house experts.
Read more News on Investing.com or Follow us on Twitter at @ Newsinvesting
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
