Oil prices rebounded on Friday as traders remained optimistic about further reductions in crude production, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
August WTI crude rose $1.11, or 2.5%, to settle at $46.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices shed about 9% for the quarter and tallied a decline of about 14.3% for the first half of the year. They ended down 4.7% for the month, but saw a weekly rise of 7%.
August Brent crude, which expired at the day’s finish, rose 50 cents, or 1.1%, to end trading at $47.92 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. The new front-month contract of September settled at $48.77 a barrel, up $1.14, or 2.4%. Brent shed roughly 14.2% for the year so far.
Natural gas futures finished lower on Friday, with the August contract at $3.035 per million British thermal units, down less than a cent, or 0.2%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures prices saw a loss of about 17.6% for the first half of the year.