The price of oil is bouncing between small gains and losses after the latest report on hiring in the U.S. offered a mixed picture of the economy.
Benchmark oil rose 7 cents to $86.33 per barrel Friday in New York.
The Labor Department says 146,000 jobs were created in November, more than economists anticipated. The unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, but that was largely because more people stopped looking for work and weren't counted as unemployed. And job gains for September and October were revised lower.
Meanwhile, in another bad sign for energy demand in Europe, Germany's central bank lowered its expectation for economic growth next year.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange:
Heating oil fell 1 cent to $2.93 per gallon.
Wholesale gasoline rose 1 cent to $2.61 per gallon.
Natural gas rose 1 cent to $3.68 per 1,000 cubic feet.
On the ICE Futures exchange in London:
Brent crude, which is used to price international varieties of oil, was unchanged at $107.03 per barrel.
