Oil slightly higher ahead of Chinese data points

Investing.com - Oil futures traded slightly higher in the early part of Friday’s Asian session as traders await some important economic data releases out of China later today.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for March delivery added 0.05% to USD95.88 per barrel in Asian trading Friday.

Oil was barely higher even after Goldman Sachs said it remains the market to remain for the remainder of the first quarter. In other news, Saudi Arabia, the largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said it kept production at around 9 million barrels per day last month, marking the second straight month the kingdom has only pumped at that level.

Saudi supplied an average of 9.26 million barrels per day last month, up from 9.15 million barrels per day in December. Futures were not that volatile in Asia following a pair of U.S. economic data points.

In U.S. economic news, first-time claims for jobless benefits fell by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 366,000 last week, according to the Labor Department. The less volatile four-week moving average fell by 2,250 to 350,500, good for the lowest reading since March 2008.

A separate report showed that non-farm business sector labor productivity fell by a seasonally adjusted 2% in the fourth quarter, compared to expectations for a decline of 1.3%. The U.S. is the world’s largest oil consumer.

Traders will now turn their attention to inflation and trade data from China later today. China is the world’s second-largest oil consumer.

Elsewhere, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, refused to discuss his country’s nuclear program with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. In Nigeria, Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S. oil company declared force majeure on Qua Iboe crude oil exports due to pipeline maintenance. Nigeria, an OPEC member, is Africa’s largest oil producer.

Those headlines lifted Brent crude for March delivery by 0.15% to USD117.46 on the ICE Futures Exchange.