Oil prices ticked up Friday on several factors that could increase demand, especially growing U.S. employment. Light, sweet crude for June delivery settled up 34 cents, or 0.3%, at $99.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rising from a five-week low it had set Thursday. Brent crude on the ICE Futures Europe exchange rose 83 cents, or 0.8%, to $108.59 a barrel. The U.S. added 288,000 new jobs in April, 73,000 more than expected, which could mean more workers on the roads. In addition, Ukraine launched a large-scale offensive, bringing geopolitical risk back into crude pricing. And the Energy Department announced plans to put $200 million of gasoline into new storage reserves to help the Northeast in case of disaster. “There are a lot of little things, but even when combined that’s not enough to really push us much higher,” analyst Jim Ritterbusch said. “The record-high stockpile […]