Oil Futures End Near 1-month Low; Natural Gas Hits Lowest In 3 Years

Oil futures settled at its lowest level in almost a month on Friday, while natural gas saw its lowest settlement since 2012. Oil saw pressure from strength in the U.S. dollar and data from Baker Hughes showing that the number of active U.S. oil-drilling rigs barely budged for the week. December crude settled at $44.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 78 cents, or 1.7%, for the session. Based on the most-active contracts, that was the lowest settlement since Sept. 28 and prices saw a weekly drop of 5.6%. November natural gas settled at $2.286 per million British thermal units, down 4.2% for the day to lose over 6% for the week. The settlement was the lowest since mid-June 2012.