WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices traded higher on Friday but were on course for a fourth successive weekly decline on worries about the outlook for oil demand from China and the United States.
Benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.4 percent to $79.87 a barrel while WTI crude futures were up 0.3 percent at $76.57.
Both contracts fell around 7 percent over the last four weeks in the longest streak of consecutive weekly losses this year.
Investors fretted about the outlook for demand growth in the wake of disappointing economic data from top oil importer China and a slew of weaker manufacturing surveys from Asia, Europe and the United States.
Prices were seeing some recovery in European trade after a meeting of top OPEC+ ministers maintained the current oil output policy.
The producer group kept its oil output policy unchanged until September and indicated that the planned hike could from October could be paused or reversed, depending on market conditions.
Meanwhile, after weak manufacturing and weekly jobless claims data, all eyes remain on the U.S. payrolls data, due later in the day that could shed some more light on the state of the economy and the Fed's rate path.
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