VINACHEM

Oil steadied on Friday as OPEC+ members Saudi Arabia and Russia indicated readiness to pause or reverse oil output increases, but crude was still headed for its third straight weekly loss on demand concerns.

Crude fell this week on OPEC+'s Sunday decision to phase out some oil output cuts from October and as rising U.S. inventories spurred concern about demand and despite a rally on Thursday helped by the Saudi and Russian comments.

Brent crude futures were down 11 cents, or 0.1%, to $79.76 a barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 13 cents, or 0.2% to $75.68 as of 0824 GMT.

"Oil prices managed to regain some ground over the past few days, tapping on some reassurances from OPEC+," said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG.

Chinese data on Friday showed exports grew for a second month in May while imports data underlined concerns about weak domestic demand as crude oil imports fell. China is the world's largest crude oil buyer.

"Exports handsomely beat expectations," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. "But worryingly for oil, overall imports were again down."

The European Central Bank went ahead with its first interest rate cut since 2019 on Thursday, prompting analyst expectations of the U.S. Federal Reserve following suit. Lower rates spur economic growth and thereby oil demand.

Coming up is the latest U.S. nonfarm payrolls data for May at 1230 GMT on Friday, which could shed more light on the timing of the Fed's rate cuts this year.

Nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 185,000 jobs last month after rising by 175,000 in April, according to a Reuters survey of economists. That gain would be below the average of 242,000 seen in the prior three months.   – Reuters –