Crude Oil Closes Notably Higher After Recovering From Early Weakness

(RTTNews) - After coming under pressure early in the session, the price of crude oil showed a significant turnaround over the course of the trading day on Friday.

Crude for April delivery jumped $0.93 or 1.2 percent to $76.32 after falling as low as $74.09 a barrel in early trading.

With the notable increase on the day, the price of crude oil extended the surge seen in the previous session, further offsetting recent weakness.

Oil prices moved sharply lower in early trading amid concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data.

The Commerce Department said annual growth by core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, accelerated to 4.7 percent in January from an upwardly revised 4.6 percent in December.

Economists had expected the annual rate of growth by core consumer prices to slow to 4.3 percent from the 4.4 percent originally reported for the previous month.

Paul Ashworth, Chief North America Economist at Capital Economics, called the data "another sign that the Fed might have to leave its policy rate higher for longer."

However, selling pressure waned over the course of the session, with the subsequent turnaround partly attributed to news of a bigger-than-expected reduction in Russian oil production.