U.S. Oil-rig Count Unchanged After 8 Weeks Of Increases

Oil futures continued to trade modestly higher on Friday after data from Baker Hughes revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil was unchanged at 406 in the latest week. That followed eight straight weeks of increases. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, fell by 2 to 489, Baker Hughes said. October crude was at $47.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 6 cents from Thursday's settlement.