Oil prices rose in Asian trade on Friday. Investors are being cautious ahead of key US employment data.

Brent crude oil futures rose 13 cents to $72.82 at 05:07 GMT, and American West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures rose 12 cents, or 0.17%, to $69.27 GMT. Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG, said that “it seems that more general caution is being prevailed as market players are still trying to understand the mixed American economic data coming out this week, while the period leading up to the crucial jobs report may limit some risk taking.” During the week, Brent was on track to fall by almost 8%, while WTI was heading for a drop of almost 6%. à Crude oil inventories fell by 6.9 million barrels ( 418.3 million barrels) barrels, compared to 993,000 barrels expected by analysts, due to a drop in