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Oil futures traded higher Friday, attempting to claw back some of Thursday’s loss, as commodity investors aimed to cap an otherwise strong recovery this week from fears of demand shocks due to the omicron variant of COVID.
West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery
CLF22,
CL.1,
traded 71 cents, or 1% higher, to reach $71.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after shedding 2% a day ago.
February Brent crude
BRNG22,
BRN00,
was trading 63 cents, or 0.8%, higher at $75.07 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, following a 1.9% decline on Thursday.
For the week, WTI, the U.S. benchmark, is up more than 8%, representing the sharpest weekly gain since a 10% rise in the period ended Aug. 27, if gains hold. Brent, the international contract, meanwhile, has climbed 7.4%, based on the most-active contract values from last Friday, also on track for its steepest weekly advance since late August.
Oil prices have been buffeted by concerns about demand due to the spread of the new omicron variant of COVID since the end of November, with restrictions imposed again on consumer activity in parts of the world including the U.K. this week.
Concerns about China’s property market, with highly leveraged developer Evergrande being downgraded by Fitch Ratings, also had contributed to some headwinds for markets.
But analysts say that the worst-case scenario for the pathogen may already have been factored into energy supply and demand.
Crude oil prices appear to be close to recovering nearly half of what was lost during the height of selling on Nov. 26.
