Brent crude surges in best week since 2016

Bloomberg

Brent crude surged to its best weekly gain in more than two years, as encouraging economic news out of the US helped oil markets turn the page on 2018’s price collapse.
The global benchmark closed higher, ending the week up 9.3 percent for its best showing since December 2016. Oil rallied alongside the US stock market following a strong jobs report and dovish comments on interest rates from the Federal Reserve.
Production declines from Saudi Arabia to Libya also buoyed a market that plummeted last year on fears of a supply glut.
“The economy in many ways looks strong and that should be good for demand,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts. “You’re getting some people buying back in, as they look out and decide the market has
gotten oversold.”
US crude finished the week up 5.8 percent, undoing some of the damage from its 40 percent slide at the end of 2018. Prices have rallied as protests and bad weather curtailed exports in Libya and data showed Saudi Arabia was reducing output even before an Opec cut scheduled to start this month.