Benchmark crude for January delivery was up 50 cents to $94.37 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract fell by $1.08 to settle at $93.87 on Thursday of December 15 last year, while Brent crude in London was up 81 cents at $104.41 on the ICE Futures exchange.
Crude has dropped from $100 last week because of expectations Europe’s debt crisis will trigger a recession next year and undermine global oil consumption.
However, the U.S. economy has shown evidence of growth the last few months when applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since May 2008.
While manufacturing output fell last month after six straight months of steady gains, a regional report showed manufacturing activity is rising this month in the Philadelphia area.
“We look for the oil market to move into a choppy, consolidation phase into the holiday period now that the euro appears to have stabilized for now amid a fresh flow of supportive U.S. economic guidance,” energy consultant Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report.
The diplomatic standoff between the West and Iran and the prospect of sanctions further cutting into Iran’s oil exports have helped keep a floor under crude prices.
“The feeble recovery is at risk from Europe’s looming recession,” said a report from JBC Energy in Vienna.
“So far, oil prices have been supported by tight crude supplies and elevated geopolitical risk as tensions over Iran’s nuclear program have risen,” it further said.
In other energy trading on the Nymex, natural gas fell 0.2 cent to $3.125 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil gained 1.31 cents to $2.8356 a gallon and gasoline futures added 3.08 cents to $2.5185 a gallon.