Crude oil prices were set for a weekly increase earlier today as optimism returned to the oil market following the release of a couple of better-than-expected reports on the U.S. economy. One of these was the retail sales report for July, which showed a 1% increase versus expectations of a 0.3% improvement, Reuters reported. The increase was all the more significant because it followed a monthly dip of 0.2% for June. The other report was the weekly jobless claims tally, which came in lower than expected, with new claims down by 7,000 for the week…
