Investing.com – Crude oil prices were mixed on Friday, as the U.S. dollar rebounded from earlier losses, while expectations for further efforts to limit global oil output continued to support.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate March contract was down 18 cents or about 0.29% at $61.16 a barrel by 10:05 a.m. ET (14:05 GMT), off one-week highs of $61.88 hit earlier in the day.
Elsewhere, for April delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London added 11 cents or about 0.14% to $64.42 a barrel, still on the upside but off session highs of $64.94.
The rally in oil prices was capped as the greenback regained some strength after data on Friday showed that U.S. homebuilding in January and that building permits soared to their highest level since 2007.
The greenback came under broad selling pressure earlier amid fresh concerns over the U.S. deficit, which is projected to climb near $1 trillion in 2019 following the announcement of infrastructure spending and large corporate tax cuts.
A weaker greenback often boosts prices for dollar-denominated commodities.
The , which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.51% at 88.92, off a three-year trough of 88.16 hit earlier.
But oil prices remained supported after United Arab Emirates energy minister Suhail al-Mazroui said on Thursday that oil producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia aim to draft an agreement on a long-term alliance to cut output by the end of this year.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), along with some non-OPEC members led by Russia, agreed in December to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018.
The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.
The commodity had already received a boost earlier in the week when Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said his country will be “sticking” with its policy to withhold production throughout 2018.
However fears that rising U.S. output could dampen OPEC’s efforts to rid the market of excess supplies have systematically limited oil prices’ gains recently.
Elsewhere, declined 0.40% to $1.734 a gallon, while lost 0.50% to $2.566 per million British thermal units.
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Source: Investing.com
