Gas prices rise amid OPEC+ production cut, labor force participation rate dips

Oil markets logged big weekly gains following OPEC+ cutting production, while the September jobs report showed 263,000 new jobs added but labor force participation ticking down.

Video Transcript

- Rough close of the week, Seana. Thank you. Let's get you up to speed now on oil markets, still roiled by the historic production cut announcement from OPEC plus earlier this week. Many analysts predicting 100 plus dollars a barrel. And price is headed in that direction, as you can see. WTI at more than 5%. Brent up more than 4%. And both up more than 10% for the week.

Take a look at what this means for drivers. Gas prices continue to climb back again today. They are now $0.11 higher than one week ago. The national average, $3.89, according to AAA. Rachelle.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: All right, let's get you up to speed now on jobs. We saw that September's unemployment rate dropped to 3.5%. Non-farm payrolls were up by 263,000, led by gains in leisure and hospitality. But that's also the lowest monthly increase since April of 2021. Wages edged up 0.3%, marking a 5% increase from a year ago.

But also taking a look at labor force participation. That ticked lower to 62.3%. And the size of the labor market also shrank by 57,000. Now Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist at LPL Financial, calls this the nail in the coffin for another 75 basis point rate increase in November for the data dependent Federal Reserve. That potential hawkishness weighing heavily on markets today.