Investing.com -- Crude futures pared some losses after crashing to near two-month lows on Friday, as U.S. rig counts rose for a fourth consecutive week, dampening some optimism that the longstanding supply glut on global energy markets could be on the verge of leveling off.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude for September delivery traded between $43.74 and $44.95 a barrel before closing at $44.23, down 0.52 or 1.16% on the session. On the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), brent crude for September delivery wavered between $45.17 and $46.50 a barrel, before settling at $45.73, down 0.46 or 1.00% on the day. Both WTI and Brent futures fell by approximately 3% on the week.
Crude futures rallied somewhat in the final hour of Friday's session after reports surfaced of a mass shooting at a shopping mall in Munich. The shooting comes roughly a week after a terrorist deliberately drove a truck into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, killing 84 people and injuring at least 300 others. Oil prices typically move higher in periods of heightened geopolitical instability.
Meanwhile, the spread between the international and U.S. benchmarks of crude stood at $1.50, up slightly from Thursday's level of $1.45 at the close of trading.
On Friday afternoon, oil services company Baker Hughes said the number of active oil rigs throughout the U.S. rose by 14 to 371, increasing for the fourth consecutive week and moving higher for the seventh time over the last eight weeks. The total rig count jumped by 15 to 462, as U.S. gas rigs fell by one to 91. During the first week of June, the overall count moved higher for the first time in 2016 ending a 41-week drought.
A rising rig count provides lagging indications that producers could be ready to return online, even as oil prices remain sharply below their peak of $115 a barrel two summers ago. Despite the recent downturn, U.S. crude prices have still surged approximately 60% since touching down to 13-year lows at $26.05 a barrel on February 11.
It comes as high-cost domestic shale producers have shown surprising resilience in removing inefficient rigs in an attempt to regain market share from OPEC competitors such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. Global oil prices have fallen precipitously since OPEC rattled markets in November, 2014, by abandoning a strategy for price stabilization in favor of capturing a larger share of the global marketplace.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the strength of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, surged more than 0.50% to an intraday high of 97.59, reaching its highest level since March 10. Dollar-denominated commodities such as crude become more expensive for foreign investors when the dollar appreciates.