VENTURE CAPITAL POST

U.S. crude traded above $48 on Friday after the University of Michigan released a report showing U.S. consumer sentiment reached its highest level in more than a decade in December.

Asian shares stumbled on Friday and the dollar skidded against the safe-haven yen after Switzerland's central bank unexpectedly scrapped its currency cap - jolting markets already roiled by plunging commodities prices.

Global oil markets resumed their slide on Friday, with Brent and U.S. crude hitting April 2009 lows and ending down for a seventh straight week, although prices recovered from their lows after a sharp drop in the U.S. oil rig count.

The euro hit a nine-year trough on Wednesday as collapsing oil prices and worries about the world economy drove skittish investors into the arms of safe-haven sovereign debt.

Global oil markets on Tuesday slumped for a fourth straight session as mounting worries about a supply glut pressured crude prices, which have fallen almost 10 percent this week to their lowest since spring 2009.

U.S. crude and Brent futures dropped to fresh 5-1/2-year lows on Monday as worries about a surplus of global supplies amid weak demand continued to drag on oil markets.

Some major U.S. airlines including Delta and Southwest are rushing to finance losing bets on oil and revamp fuel hedges as tumbling crude prices leave them with billions of dollars in losses, according to people familiar with the hedging schemes.

Global oil prices slid further on Friday, with Brent on track for the first weekly close below $70 a barrel since 2010, as strong U.S. employment data did little to lift the oil market's bearish mood a day after Saudi Arabia cut official selling prices.

Brent rose to $71 a barrel on Wednesday, recovering some of its losses from the previous session as a turbulent market searched for a price floor after a nearly 40 percent fall since June.

The oil market has entered a new era with lower Chinese economic growth and booming U.S. shale output, making a return soon to high prices unlikely, the West's energy watchdog said on Friday.

World equity markets rallied, with European stocks surging the most in more than two years, and bond prices slid on Friday as investors poured back into beaten-down markets on solid U.S. corporate earnings and rising consumer sentiment.

As Iraqi militants advanced on Baghdad with M-16s and stolen tanks in June, most investors and traders in the jittery oil markets believed oil prices would spike even higher.

Saudi Arabia is quietly telling oil market participants that Riyadh is comfortable with markedly lower oil prices for an extended period, a sharp shift in policy that may be aimed at slowing the expansion of rival producers including those in the U.S. shale patch.

Asian stocks slipped on Thursday, giving back earlier gains as initial cheer from a rebound on Wall Street fizzled out, while the New Zealand dollar hit a one-year low when the central bank governor decried the currency's recent strength.

Asian stocks rose early on Thursday, cheered by a sizeable overnight rebound on Wall Street, while the dollar resumed its advance after upbeat economic data undercut safe-haven bids and pushed yields higher.