Oil prices rebound; dollar firms as sterling drops

Oil prices recovered on Friday from some of the previous day's steep slide after investor disappointment that OPEC curbs did not go far enough, while Wall Street stocks eked out a seventh straight day of gains.

U.S. bond yields stayed steady and gold saw big gains as a risk-off sentiment and concerns about political uncertainty took hold, with spot gold  rising to its highest since May 1.

"We have had the political noise coming from Trump and the U.S. administration and there is a certain element of uncertainty in the markets in general, which is supporting gold. Equities are also down," analyst Carsten Menke at Julius Baer in Zurich said.

Spot gold  added 0.9 percent to $1,267.00 an ounce. U.S. gold futures  gained 0.82 percent to $1,266.70 an ounce.

Friday's partial rebound for oil prices followed a day of downward pressure. Some market participants had priced in more aggressive, extended output cuts from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

U.S. crude  rose 1.82 percent to $49.79 per barrel and Brent  was last at $52.15, up 1.34 percent on the day. Both contracts, however, ended the week lower.

Sterling slid more than 1 percent following a poll showing the ruling Conservatives' lead shrinking two weeks before an election.

Britain's pound  tumbled to a more than four-week low of $1.2772. It was last down 1.03 percent at $1.2806.

The U.S. dollar, however, rose after upbeat data showed that the U.S. economy slowed less than initially thought in the first quarter, as gross domestic product increased at a 1.2 percent annual rate.

The dollar indexrose 0.2 percent, with the euro down 0.33 percent to $1.1172.

Wall Street saw another strong day for consumer stocks, offset by weakness in healthcare and real estate shares. The flattening market had threatened to break a winning streak, but the S&P 500 eked out a slightly higher day ahead of a long weekend.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average  fell 2.67 points, or 0.01 percent, to end the week at 21,080.28, the S&P 500  gained 0.75 point, or 0.03 percent, to 2,415.82 and the Nasdaq Composite  added 4.94 points, or 0.08 percent, to 6,210.19.

In Britain, the first opinion poll since a suicide bombing killed 22 people indicated the opposition Labour Party had cut the Conservative Party's lead to five points, with less than a fortnight to go to the parliamentary election.

The sterling selloff was seen boding well for British exporters, however. British stock markets bucked the downward trend and hit record highs.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index  ost 0.22 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe  shed 0.08 percent.

 CAPITALSTARS

Investment & trading in securities market is always subjected to market risks, past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.
CapitalStars Investment Adviser: SEBI Registration Number: INA000001647