Crude Oil Inches Higher But On Pace For Weekly Loss

(RTTNews) - The price of crude oil has moved modestly higher during trading on Friday, regaining some ground following the steep drop seen in the previous session.

After plunging $1.79 or 2.8 percent to $62.84 a barrel during Thursday's session, crude for March delivery has risen was last seen trading up $0.06 or 0.1 percent at $62.90 a barrel.

Despite the uptick on the day, oil is headed for the first back-to-back weekly drop this year after the International Energy Agency lowered its global oil demand forecast for 2026 and projected a sizeable surplus despite outages that cut supply in January.

U.S.-Iran tensions eased somewhat, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying that negotiations with Iran could stretch for as long as a month.

As talks between Iranian and U.S. officials continue over Iran's nuclear program, Trump threatened Iran Thursday with "very traumatic" consequences if it fails to make a nuclear deal.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was skeptical about the quality of any such agreement.