The cost of oil brand West Texas Intermediate continued to rise after the Department of Energy data showed a drop in U.S. oil inventories .

According to data published in the U.S. this week , December 16-22, oil reserves fell by 4.731 million barrels to 367.574 million barrels , while gasoline stocks fell by 0.614 million barrels . to 219.872 million barrels . , while distillate stocks fell by 1.85 million barrels . to 114.105 million barrels . Refining capacity utilization rate was 92.7 % against 91.5 % a week earlier .

The tone of trading on Friday also asked the positive data on the U.S. labor market . According to the released data on Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department , the number of initial claims for jobless benefits in the week December 15-21 declined significantly more than expected . These findings are the latest in a series of economic reports showing the acceleration of U.S. GDP growth , which, according to market participants, can increase consumer spending on discretionary goods demand , such as gasoline .

On the eve of futures prices for gasoline and diesel fuel reached multi-month highs on expectations of a relatively high demand for petroleum products .

Gasoline prices also got support from news that Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania , owned by Delta Air Lines Inc. 'S (DAL), plans to conduct technical work next week.

Cost February futures on U.S. light crude oil WTI (Light Sweet Crude Oil) rose to $ 100.67 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

February futures price for North Sea Brent crude oil mixture fell 4 cents to $ 111.94 a barrel on the London exchange ICE Futures Europe.

The price of gold increases the third consecutive session on the background of increasing demand in Asia, according to data exchanges .

"A small amount of trades in the western areas indicates that the gold recovered in the price due to the increase in physical demand in Asia ," - said the agency MarketWatch publisher NicholsOnGold.com Jeffrey Nichols .

The experts believe that the stock markets will greatly affect the price of the precious metal . " If the stock markets will be held in a robust , it will negatively affect gold ," - he added.

Some traders say that , in their opinion, the fund managers will not make major changes in their portfolios before the end of the year , in connection with which stocks can continue to rise .

In the long term negative impact on gold may affect factors such as the global economic recovery , supported by macro data in countries such as the United States , as well as further reduction of the quantitative easing program the Fed USA.

On Thursday, data released , according to which the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. in the week December 15-21, declined for the first time in three weeks on 42,000 and adjusted for seasonal variation was 338,000 . Decline was greater than expected by economists .

Cost February gold futures on the COMEX today rose to $ 1218.50 per ounce.

Gold $1,210.20 -2.10 -0.17%

Oil $99.56 +0.01 +0.01%