LONDON: Oil prices rose on Friday, on track to end higher this week after two straight weeks of losses, after a top US official expressed optimism over economic growth and as supply concerns lingered due to conflicts in the Middle East.
Brent crude futures gained 19 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $89.20 a barrel at 0927 GMT, and US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose by 25 cents, or 0.3 per cent, to $83.82 a barrel. Brent has gained 2.2 per cent so far this week, while WTI is up 0.8per cent.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters on Thursday that US GDP growth for the first quarter could be revised higher, and inflation will ease after a clutch of "peculiar" factors held the economy to its weakest showing in nearly two years.
US economic growth was likely stronger than suggested by weaker-than-expected quarterly data, she said. Data showed that economic growth slowed in the first quarter, and prior to Yellen's comments, tremors from an acceleration in inflation had weighed on oil prices as investors calculated that the Federal Reserve would not cut interest rates before September.
The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy rising rose at a 3.7 per cent annual rate after a 2.0 per cent pace in the fourth quarter of 2023, the data showed. Mining giant BHP proposed a near $39 billion takeover of Anglo American on Thursday offering a deal which would create the world's biggest copper miner.
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