WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil futures settled notably higher on Friday amid slightly easing worries about the Omicron coronavirus variant's impact on global economic growth.
Fears of a likely slowdown in China's property sector as well as the country's broader economy, and declining domestic air traffic in China due to tighter travel restrictions limited oil's uptick.
Traders also noted the data from the Labor Department that showed U.S. consumer prices surged at the fastest annual rate in nearly 40 years in November. The data said the annual rate of growth in consumer prices accelerated to 6.8% in November from 6.2% a month earlier.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended higher by $0.73 or about 1% at $71.67 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained about 8.2% in the week, the best weekly returns since end August.
Brent crude futures were up $1.00 or 1.34% at $75.41 a barrel a little while ago.
Traders continued to closely follow the updates on the vaccine front. Preliminary results published Wednesday indicated that three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine were needed to obtain the same level of protection against Omicron as two doses provided against the initial strain.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday it remained unclear whether additional Covid-19 vaccine doses are needed to protect against the new Omicron variant.
A report from Baker Hughes said the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose by four to 471 this week. The total U.S. rig count, which includes those drilling for natural gas, climbed by seven to 576, the data showed.
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