By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Oil was up on Friday morning in Asia, extending gains from the previous session over hopes of continued fuel demand recovery.
Satellite traffic data from China, Europe and the United States indicated a healthy increase in levels, boosting investor sentiment and confidence in demand recovery.
Brent oil futures rose 0.29% to $41.59 by 9:59 PM ET (2:59 AM GMT) and WTI futures jumped 1.29% to $39.22.
But continuing fears of an oversupply halted the black liquid's advances. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated a 1.442 million-barrel build on Wednesday, a much bigger build than the predicted 299,000-barrel one in forecasts prepared by Investing.com. EIA's forecast corroborated the American Petroleum Institute's (API) estimate of a build in the supply on Tuesday.
Investors are also monitoring a surge of COVID-19 cases in parts of the U.S., including big oil consumer states such as Florida and Texas. Globally, there are now almost 9.6 million COVID-19 cases as of June 26 according to Johns Hopkins University, with fears of a second wave continuing to dampen investor sentiment.
"The risk of a fresh outbreak could hit the recovery in demand," ANZ Research warned in a note.