VENTURE CAPITAL POST

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.

Oil prices fell to their lowest in five years on Monday, hit by slowing factory activity in China and Europe and hammering emerging market stocks and commodity-linked currencies.

The ECB's monthly rate meeting will focus minds this week on the debate over quantitative easing in the euro zone, as a series of data releases on both sides of the Atlantic sheds more light on European woes and U.S. strength.

Essar Group, a $39 billion Indian conglomerate, is looking to tap frozen Iranian oil revenues to pay for its steel exports to Tehran, in a novel attempt to work around Western financial sanctions against the OPEC member state.

Russia's most powerful oil official Igor Sechin said in an interview with an Austrian newspaper that oil prices could fall below $60 by mid-way through next year.

Saudi Arabia's oil minister told fellow OPEC members they must combat the U.S. shale oil boom, arguing against cutting crude output in order to depress prices and undermine the profitability of North American producers.

Shale stocks have been hard-hit as investors see margins all but evaporating following the slide in crude oil prices, but the U.S. shale energy boom is not over.

Saudi Arabia blocked calls on Thursday from poorer members of the OPEC oil exporter group for production cuts to arrest a slide in global prices, sending benchmark crude plunging to a fresh four-year low.

Fading hopes OPEC will cut production when it meets Thursday sent oil prices tumbling to a four-year low and the world stock-market rally paused for Thanksgiving in the United States.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday boosted by tech shares, with the S&P 500 and Dow industrials closing at records, while the energy sector was once more the largest weight on the market as crude prices continued to flirt with multi-year lows.

Impromptu talks between Saudi Arabia, fellow OPEC member Venezuela and oil powers Russia and Mexico yielded no agreement on Tuesday on how to address a growing oil glut, ending without any plan to cut output despite a collapse in prices.

Asian stocks edged up on Wednesday after data showing the U.S. economy growing at a relatively solid pace calmed investor anxiety over slowing global growth, while the Australian dollar languished near four-year lows against the dollar.

Asian shares gave back some of their China-inspired gains on Tuesday, while oil prices slumped ahead of this week's OPEC meeting.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has moved closer to launching sovereign debt purchases and data this week will show just how dangerously low inflation has fallen in the $13 trillion euro zone economy.