Oil rose for a third day in New York amid low trading volumes, recouping most of this week’s earlier losses, yet the outlook remained clouded by concerns over the economy and abundant supplies.

West Texas Intermediate futures climbed as much as 1.2% with little news to drive the increase and trading volumes about 70% below average. Sentiment remained pessimistic, after China reported the slowest pace of economic growth since the early 1990s last quarter, and U.S. government data on Thursday showed that crude inventories expanded last week.

WTI for November delivery advanced 57 cents to $54.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 7:44 a.m. local time. It rose 1.1% on Thursday. This week’s loss has been trimmed to 0.4%.

Brent crude for December settlement gained 24 cents to $60.15 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe, paring its weekly drop to 0.6%. The global benchmark was at a premium of $5.57 to WTI for the same month.

Source : Bloomberg