Oil prices rose on Friday amid bullish sentiment following the passage of a U.S. debt ceiling bill in Washington, while markets weighed the likelihood of price-supportive OPEC+ production cuts over the weekend.
Brent crude futures rose 34 cents, or 0.46% to $74.62 a barrel by 03:02 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) rose 30 cents, or 0.43%, to $70.40, following two consecutive days of losses.
Markets were reassured by Congress’ passage of a bill suspending the U.S. government’s $31.4 billion debt ceiling, as well as earlier signals of a potential pause in rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
The bill was approved by the Senate on Thursday night U.S. time, staving off a calamitous sovereign default that would have rocked global financial markets. Market sentiment was also buoyed by Thursday’s U.S. crude stock data from the Energy Information Administration, which indicated that crude imports had jumped last week.
Investor attention is now fixed on the June 4 meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, collectively called OPEC+ Ministers from key oil producing countries will decide whether to further trim output to support government revenues. -REUTERS
