Oil futures soar 3% ahead of the weekend

Oil futures surged in American trade, recouping most of the losses sustained throughout the week , while still heading for the third weekly loss in a row, as the dollar index gave up ground following a spate of data from the US, the world's largest energy consumer. 

As of 06:06 GMT, US crude futures due on September 15 rose 2.89% to $48.45 a barrel from the opening of $47.09, while Brent crude futures due on October 16 surged 3.14% to $52.63 a barrel from the opening of $51.03, as the dollar index shed 0.12% to 93.51 from the opening of 93.62. 

Earlier from the US, University of Michigan released its preliminary reading for the consumer sentiment survey, which came at 97.6 in August, compared to July's 93.4, and comfortably beating expectations of 94.0. 

The current economic conditions index in the same survey fell to 111.0 from 113.4, while the economic outlook index rose to 89.0 from 80.5 last month. 

Inflation outlook for one year steadied at 2.6%, the same as July, while five-year inflation outlook fell to 2.5% from 2.6%, and finally, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan spoke at the Dallas County Community College, where he expressed his belief GDP growth will be above 2% this year. 

Now traders await the Opec and non-Opec technical committee's meeting next week in Vienna to discuss the measures to improve the compliance with the global deal to cut output by 1.8 million bpd until next March, with OPEC responsible for 1.2 million bpd of these cuts, and other independent producers, mainly Russia, took charge of 0.6 million bpd. 

Earlier this week, the Energy Information Administration released its report on US crude stocks, showing a big drawdown of 8.9 million barrels in the week ending August 11, compared to 6.5 million in the previous reading, while analysts expected a fall of 3.0M, with total stocks now falling to 466.5 million barrels, remaining within the uppermost range on average in this time of year.

Otherwise, gasoline stocks remained pretty much the same last week, while distillate inventories rose 0.7 million barrels, both remaining within the uppermost range on average in this time of year.