Oil
rose from the highest close in almost a week in New York
after the head of the European
Central Bank predicted the euro will survive and reports signaled improving economic prospects in the U.S. and China.
Futures
were up as much as 0.3 percent after climbing for a
third day on 26 July. ECB President Mario Draghi said policy makers will do whatever is
needed to preserve the European common currency. U.S. reports showed bookings
for durable goods climbed more than projected and fewer Americans than forecast
filed first-time unemployment claims. Profits at industrial companies in China
fell at a slower rate than previous months.
Oil
for September delivery rose as much as 30 cents to $89.69 a barrel in
electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $89.63. The contract
climbed 0.5 percent on 26 July to $89.39, the highest
close since July 20. Prices are down 1.8 percent
this week and 9.3 percent lower this year.
Brent crude
for September settlement was up 50 cents to $105.76 a barrel on the
London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark’s premium to
West Texas Intermediate was at $16.05, the widest since May 28 and up from
$15.87 on 26 July.
Oil
in New York has long-term technical resistance at $89.83 a barrel. On the
weekly chart, that’s the 50 percent Fibonacci
retracement of the drop to $32.40 in December 2008 from an intraday record high
of $147.27 in July that year. Sell orders tend to be clustered near
chart-resistance levels.
Financial
markets surged on speculation the ECB will act to lower Spanish borrowing costs
after yields on the nation’s bonds rose to levels that prompted bailouts for Greece,
Portugal
and Ireland. The ECB started buying Spanish and Italian debt in August last
year as part of its bond-purchase program. The ECB suspended the program in
March.
Oil
may decline next week on speculation that central banks will take insufficient
steps to bolster economic growth.
Orders
for durable goods, those meant to last at least three years, rose 1.6 percent in June, the second monthly gain, a report from the Commerce Department showed on 26 July.
First-time applications for jobless benefits fell 35,000 in the week
ended July 21 to 353,000, Labor Department figures
showed.
Chinese
industrial companies’ profits in June fell 1.7 percent
from a year earlier to 467.2 billion yuan ($73 billion), the National
Bureau of Statistics said on its website on 27 July. That drop was smaller than
declines of 5.3 percent in May and 2.2 percent in April.
Iran’s deputy chief
nuclear negotiator said his meeting with a European Union official that aimed
to establish common ground for another round of talks on the country’s atomic
program was “positive.”