Investing.com — The brouhaha over what the U.S. jobs report for February will bring is over and the Federal Reserve’s wary eyes are now on the reading for consumer prices, due Tuesday. Yet, talk is growing that the central bank will be kinder with its March rate hike, helping oil markets cut some of their weekly loss.

New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude settled up 96 cents, or 1.3%, at $76.68 per barrel. That helped WTI reduce its weekly loss to 3.8%. Until Thursday’s close, the U.S. crude benchmark had appeared headed for a 5% loss at least.

Technical charts for WTI, at least, suggested that crude prices needed to regain the $80 level they hit earlier this week in order to resume a bullish wave.