U.S. oil futures settle modestly higher, up a third straight week

U.S. oil futures settled slightly higher on Thursday and tallied a third consecutive weekly gain for the holiday-shortened trading week. It seems that West Texas Intermediate crude “isn’t going to budge from the $80 a barrel level, even as the headlines suggest the U.S. economy is quickly weakening,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. May West Texas Intermediate crude CLK23 rose 9 cents, or 0.1%, to settle at $80.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with prices for the front-month contract up nearly 6.7% for the week, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

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