LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose toward $95 on Friday, supported by expectations that the U.S. House of Representatives was likely to pass a financial rescue plan to stem further global market turmoil.
But the gains in crude oil prices were limited by caution ahead of U.S. employment data and due to slow U.S. gasoline demand.
U.S. light crude rose 61 cents to $94.58 a barrel by 7:05 a.m. EDT. On Thursday, it plunged $4.56 amid a broader sell-off in the commodities markets.
London Brent crude rose more sharply than U.S. crude. Brent earlier gained more than $1 to as high as $91.72 and it was trading 70 cents up at $91.26.
The U.S. House of Representatives could vote as early as Friday on the revised $700 billion financial industry rescue bill, which was approved by the U.S. Senate late on Wednesday.
"We will have a vote at the House of Representatives and we will have the U.S. employment data today. So there is a lot to watch," Olivier Jakob at Petromatrix said.
"Risk really is the weakness of gasoline. If gasoline's crack (premium to crude) goes down to negative territory, it will put pressure down on crude prices even if the House passes the plan."
U.S. non-farm payrolls data is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
New York RBOB gasoline futures have underperformed U.S. crude oil futures this week because of a fall in demand and an increase in inventories in the United States, the world's top oil market.
RBOB gasoline futures' premium to U.S. crude has fallen to 1 cent a barrel, indicating refiners may soon start making losses when producing gasoline from crude oil.
(Additional reporting by Maryelle Demongeot in Singapore and Chikafumi Hodo in Tokyo; editing by Anthony Barker)
