Crude gains as Tropical Storm Karen bears down on Gulf Coast

           Crude prices rose on Friday as Tropical Storm Karen continued to bear down on the energy-rich U.S. Gulf Coast prompting oil-rig evacuations ahead of time.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in November traded at USD103.50 a barrel during U.S. trading, up 0.18%. 

The commodity hit a session low of USD102.89 and a high of USD104.17.

The November contract settled down 0.76% at USD103.31 a barrel on Thursday.

At the time of writing, Karen's maximum sustained winds were at 50 miles per hour and Tropical Storm Warning flags were flying along the Gulf Coast.

While the storm appeared weaker than in previous forecasts, the system was still strong enough to prompt energy companies to begin evacuating rigs and shut down production.

Capping gains, however, was a U.S. government shutdown that began earlier this week due to congressional inability to agree on a spending package, which kept close to a million government workers off the job and without pay.

Fears the shutdown, fiscal drag and uncertainty in general will weigh on recovery and crimp demand for fuel and energy capped oil's gains on Friday.

The session was previously scheduled to see the release of the U.S. September jobs report, which tends to move oil prices by painting a picture of U.S. economic strength.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on its web site that it was not collecting data, issuing reports, or responding to public inquiries due to suspension of federal services.

Markets were also mulling how the U.S. political deadlock will affect negotiations to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, which the U.S. Treasury Department has estimated will be reached by Oct. 17. 

International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde said earlier that failure to raise the U.S. debt ceiling could hurt the global economy and warned U.S. growth could drop below 2% this year. 

Meanwhile on the ICE Futures Exchange, Brent oil futures for November delivery were up 0.05% at USD109.06 a barrel, up USD5.56 from its U.S. counterpart. - investing.com