Oil price ending this week above $52

Oil futures are finishing the week up by eightper cent from last Friday, after dropping steadily since the end of November.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.64cents U.S. on the day at 79.85, but up on the week after falling as low as 78 cents US.

Toronto stocks moved in the morning, as jobs data for Canada turned out to be better than expected.

Investors have been waiting for oil to find a bottom since last November, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries confirmed it would not cut production.

A global glut in oil production, exacerbated by the surge in U.S. shale oil, helped force oil prices as low as $44.53 US a barrel last week.

Today, West Texas Intermediate, the most commonly traded contract in North America, was up $1.60 at $52.06 US a barrelafter a wild week that has taken it up then down then up again. Oil is down 50 per cent from last year, but its eight per cent rise in one week is the strongest since 2011.

Brent crude, the contract traded in London, is up $1.64 at $58.15 a barrel and Western Canada Select, a Canadian contract, is selling for a deep discount of $38.50.

As earnings reports trickle in over the last three weeks, oil companies around the world have announced layoffs, reductions in capital investment and plans to sell off underperformingunits.

But until demand improves, the glut of oil remains and that makes predicting oil's future as difficult now as it has been for the last five months.

Statistics Canadareported that 35,400 positions were createdduring January, far higher than the 4,500 that economists had predicted. The unemployment rate declined 0.1 percentage points to 6.6 per cent.Many of the job gains were in part-time work.

Thelooniesfall was a result of the U.S. dollar strengthening on strong job numbers out south of the border.

The U.S.LaborDepartment reportedtotal employment gains of 257,000 last month, well above the approximately 233,000 positions that economists had expected.

The U.S. jobless rate stood at 5.7 per cent, up from 5.6 per cent.

"The labour market was about the last thing to recover from the Great Recession, and in the last six months it has picked up steam," said BillHampel, chief economist at the Credit Union National Association. "The benefits for the middle class are now solidifying."

The average hourly wage rose 12 cents to $24.75 in January, a jump of 0.5 percent the sharpest since 2008. In the past year, hourly pay, which has long been stagnant, has risen 2.2 percent. That's well above inflation, which rose just 0.8 percent in 2014.

The accelerating job and pay growth now make it more likely that the Federal Reserve will begin raising the short-term interest rate it controls by midyear.