More mixed news on the economic front left oil markets in flux as U.S. and European metrics produced Thursday show uneven growth in the global arena.
Oil prices are on a short-term rise, recovering from historic lows this week. The price for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil benchmark, posted its second straight day of gains to trade up modestly from the previous session to close to $49 per barrel for the February contract.
The small boost follows a report from the U.S. Labor Department showing continued improvements in employment.
For the week ending Jan. 3, seasonally adjusted claims for unemployment fell 4,000 from the previous week. Texas, the No. 1 oil producer in the United States, had the largest decrease in initial claims with 7,008, data show.
The European economy, meanwhile, continues to struggle to find momentum after the recent global recession. Eurostat, the European Union's statistic office, said the volume of retail trade was up slightly by 0.6 percent, while industrial producer prices were down 0.3 percent for November when weighed against October 2013 levels.
Inflation turned negative in December, driven in large part by falling energy prices, the statistics office said Wednesday.
The price for Brent, the global benchmark, was off slightly from the previous session to trade near the $51 barrel mark for the February contract. Brent fell briefly below the $50 mark earlier this week.
