U.S. job openings increased in March to the highest level in eight months and layoffs continued to decline, indicating the labor market remains fairly robust despite April's slowdown in employment gains.
The firmer labor market tone was also evident in another report on Tuesday, which showed small businesses increasingly having trouble finding qualified workers to fill open positions.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, rose 149,000 to a seasonally adjusted 5.8 million, the Labor Department said in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report. That was the highest reading since July.
Brent jumped 4 percent on Tuesday while U.S. crude settled up more than 2 percent, after a late burst of buying driven in part by expectations that record U.S. crude inventories would not swell by as much as they have in recent weeks.
Crude supply outages in Canada, Nigeria and elsewhere also boosted prices. Brent's gain was its biggest one-day percentage move in a month.
The market pared gains briefly in post-settlement trade after the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group, said U.S. crude inventories rose by 3.45 million barrels to record highs of 543.1 million during the week ended May 6.
Brent LCOc1 settled up $1.89, or 4.3 percent, at $45.52 per barrel. More than 6,000 contracts changed hands in the final minute, Reuters data showed. The global oil benchmark rose to as high as $45.70 in post-settlement trading. After settlement, it briefly dipped more than 30 cents on the API data, then recovered to near its settlement price.
U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 rose 1.22, or 2.8 percent, to settle at $44.66. WTI also fell briefly on the API data.
Reference: Reuters,
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