Investing.com — Oil prices edged higher Friday after U.S. jobs growth slowed in February, but the market is still set for the biggest weekly loss in five weeks on concerns that steep interest rate hikes in the U.S. will curb demand in the largest crude consumer in the world.

By 09:10 ET (14:10 GMT), U.S. crude futures traded 0.1% higher at $75.79 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.2% to $81.78 a barrel. Both benchmarks are on course to record losses of over 5% this week.

That said, hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell during his semi-annual testimony to Congress earlier this week have heightened expectations of further rate hikes in the world’s largest economy, clouding the growth outlook and thus the demand for energy.