By Anna Louie Sussman
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose more than $1 a barrel on Friday in choppy trade as data pointing to modest gains in U.S. hiring gave U.S. stock markets a boost, taking crude along for the ride.
The United States added 175,000 jobs last month, Labor Department data showed, just above the median forecast in a Reuters poll.
Equity markets read the figure as low enough to soothe concerns that the U.S. Federal Reserve might end its stimulus efforts sooner than expected, with all three major indexes trading up more than 1 percent by midday.
The unemployment rate ticked a tenth of a percentage point higher to 7.6 percent, with the increase actually giving a relatively hopeful sign as it was driven by more workers entering the labor force.
Brent crude rose $1.21 to $104.82 a barrel by 12:05 p.m. EDT (1605 GMT), down from its session high above $105 and after going below $103. The benchmark was on track to post its strongest weekly gain since July 2012, rising 4 percent.
U.S. oil gained $1.33 to $96.09 a barrel, heading for the strongest weekly gain since April 26 at 4 percent.
Brent and U.S. crude dipped just after the release of the jobs data but began their rise around 1330 GMT, when the U.S. stock markets opened and began their steady ascent.
"Oil is taking a cue from the equity market, which obviously liked the employment data," said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.
"The upside surprise versus expectation is signaling further economic improvement and energy demand."
The Fed's policy-setting committee meets on June 18-19. With data ranging from manufacturing to consumer spending showing the economy hit a soft patch early in the second quarter, it is unlikely the U.S. central bank will announce at that meeting a lessening of the $85 billion in bonds it is buying each month.
Brent had been supported on Thursday by news that the Buzzard oilfield in the UK North Sea had suffered a production outage, the second in less than a week. The field's normal production is about 200,000 barrels per day.
News of a fall in U.S. oil inventories also supported prices, particularly the U.S. benchmark. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma oil hub declined more than 1 million barrels between May 31 and June 4, energy industry intelligence service Genscape reported.
(Additional reporting by Ron Bousso in London, Manash Goswami in Singapore; Editing by Dale Hudson)
