• Oil was steady Friday — but headed for a modest weekly gain — as the market weighed signs of weakening US demand against tensions in the Middle East and North Africa.
• West Texas Intermediate traded above $72 a barrel after declining 0.7% Thursday, when Brent crude closed below $78. American gasoline inventories swelled the most in three decades and implied demand dropped to the lowest in a year, official data showed. Crude stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub rose to the highest since, although overall supplies fell.