Oil Holds Over $96 on Isaac Concerns

Oil held over $96 a barrel in early trading Friday as forecasters kept an eye on Tropical Storm Isaac, which is likely to move into the Gulf of Mexico next week as a low-level hurricane, Bloomberg reported.

Crude futures rose 34 cents in early trading Friday to $96.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures have closed over $96 every day but one in the past week.

Oil closed at $97.26 a barrel on Wednesday, its highest Nymex closing price since May 7, Bloomberg figures showed.

Isaac, currently a tropical storm off the southern coast of Haiti, is expected to strengthen and make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast between Florida and Texas as a Category 1 hurricane next week, according the National Hurricane Center.  Category 1 is the lowest of five storm-strength categories.

While a relatively low threat to Gulf Coast refineries, which make up almost a third of U.S. oil production, those facilities could lose 2 to 3 million barrels of production due to precautionary shutdowns because of the storm, Bloomberg reported, citing analysts.

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Unemployment Rate Holds at 8.2%, Trucking Gains 2,000 Jobs

The U.S. unemployment rate held at 8.2% in June trucking improved by 2,000 jobs, the Labor Department said Friday.

The transportation sector, of which trucking is a subset, added 25,300 jobs, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Employers added 69,000 jobs to non-farm payrolls, following a revised 77,000 in May that was revised upward. Private-sector employment rose by 84,000 jobs, the weakest in 10 months.

Economists had forecast a 100,000 gain in non-farm jobs, Bloomberg reported.

Manufacturing employment rose by 11,000, more than the 7,000 increase forecast, Bloomberg said. Construction employment rose by 2,000 jobs.

The payroll and unemployment figures are obtained by separate surveys, with payrolls from a survey of employers and the unemployment rate from a survey of households.

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