Oil Holds Gains As Baker Hughes Reports Weekly U.S. Oil-rig Count Up By 7

Oil futures held onto their gains Friday after data from Baker Hughes revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 7 to 425 rigs this week. They have now posted increases in 13 out of the last 14 weeks. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, climbed by 11 to 522, Baker Hughes said. Nov. crude was at $48.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 26 cents, or 0.5%, from Thursday's settlement. It was trading around that same level before the rig data.