Crude oil futures were marginally higher in mid-morning Asian trade Aug. 7 as optimism over a better-than-expected US jobs report and pledged compensation cuts by Iraq buoyed the market despite the growing COVID-19 case counts worldwide. At 10:25 am Singapore time (0225 GMT), the ICE Brent October crude futures was up 6 cents/b (0.09%) from the August 6 settle at $45.15/b, while NYMEX September light sweet crude contract was up by 4 cents/b (0.1%) at $41.99/b. The global crude complex found strong support this week on the back of a larger-than-expected 7.37 million barrels drawdown in US commercial crude inventories as well as improvement in US factory orders for June and manufacturing PMIs in July. This slew of positive economic data allowed the Brent marker to break out of its $45/b resistance level, […]