Dollar Lower, Oil Higher

Oil prices rose on Friday on the weakness of the US dollar, although concerns about the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases and tensions between the United States and China have capped price movements.

The US dollar fell to a 22-month low on the US dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback versus a basket of major currencies, and a weak dollar usually stimulates the purchase of dollar-denominated commodities like oil as it becomes cheaper for other currencies.

Brent crude rose 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $ 43.37 a barrel and WTI gained 1 cent to $ 41.08.

The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly to 1.416 million last week for the first time in nearly four months, indicating that the US economic recovery is stalling amid the resurgence of COVID-19 cases.

On Thursday, the United States recorded more than 1,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the third day in a row that the country has overlooked this grim milestone as the epidemic escalated in its southern and western states. Globally, more than 15 million people have been infected and more than 620,000 have died. According to Reuters