Oil rises above $103 a barrel on US data
The price of oil rose for the first time in six days on upbeat news about the US economy.
NEW YORK (AP) - Benchmark oil for November delivery gained 37 cents Thursday to close at $103.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil had dropped $5.41, or 5 percent, over the five previous trading sessions.
Oil prices rose as data showed that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell 5,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 305,000, the second-lowest level in six years. The U.S. economy, meanwhile, was confirmed to have grown an annualized 2.5 percent in the April-June period.
Oil has fallen nearly 7 percent since closing at a two-year high of $110.53 on Sept. 6. Since then, diplomatic efforts have averted a U.S. military strike against Syria, and tense relations between the U.S. and Iran have shown signs of a thaw. As a result, the market has removed the so-called political risk premium from the price of oil. Some analysts put this premium at about $5 to $6 a barrel.
Brent crude, the benchmark for international crudes used by many U.S. refineries, rose 89 cents to $109.21 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.
