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Oil prices increase on Iran deal and mixed U.S. job reports

Oil prices rebounded yesterday following Wednesday's massive sell-off; May-15 Brent rose $1.02/bbl to close at $56.57/bbl while May-15 WTI rose $0.37/bbl to close at $50.79/bbl.

U.S. initial jobless claims, indicating the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits last week, rose by just 14k to a seasonally adjusted 281k and less than the expected 18k rise. The prior week's reading was also revised to 267k, the lowest since April 2000. Continuing jobless claims, indicating the number of people remaining on jobless benefits, declined by 23k to 2.304m in the week ending March 28; this was also the fewest since December 2000. Additionally, the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index climbed to 47.9 in the period ended April 5, the highest since May 2007.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cautioned that the preliminary agreement on his country's nuclear program was not a "guarantee" of a final deal with world powers. Iran also demanded that all sanctions on Iran be lifted at the same time as any final agreement on curbing Iran’s nuclear activities is concluded. This is in contrast to the opinions of western powers, who have said that sanctions relief will be gradual and conditional on Iranian co-operation. Separately on Thursday, U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke reiterated America's position that "under the agreed-upon parameters, sanctions will be suspended in a phased manner upon verification that Iran has met specific commitments".

We are light on data today, with the only ones of note being France and UK industrial production at 6:45 and 8:30 GMT respectively.