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(Bloomberg) -- Oil steadied after a lackluster session as traders continued to weigh diverging signals over supply and demand.Most Read from BloombergThey Built a Secret Apartment in a Mall. Now the Mall Is Dying.Chicago Transit Faces ‘Doomsday Scenario,’ Regional Agency SaysLA Faces $1 Billion Budget Hole, Warns of Thousands of LayoffsNew York Subway Ditches MetroCard After 32 Years for Tap-And-GoDespite Cost-Cutting Moves, Trump Plans to Remake DC in His StyleWest Texas Intermediate edged up 0

Two Federal Reserve officials shed light Friday on how the central bank is navigating the fog of uncertainty about what President Donald Trump will do next when it comes to imposing tariffs, and how the import taxes will affect inflation and unemployment.

(Bloomberg) -- Two Federal Reserve officials on Friday echoed comments from Chair Jerome Powell earlier this week, downplaying the recent rise in a key measure of long-term inflation expectations but emphasizing the outlook is highly uncertain.Most Read from BloombergChicago Transit Faces ‘Doomsday Scenario,’ Regional Agency SaysThey Built a Secret Apartment in a Mall. Now the Mall Is Dying.LA Faces $1 Billion Budget Hole, Warns of Thousands of LayoffsNew York Subway Ditches MetroCard After 32 Y

U.S. energy firms this week added oil and natural gas rigs for the first time in three weeks, energy services firm Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report on Friday. The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose by one to 593 in the week to March 21. Despite this week's rig increase, Baker Hughes said the total count was still down 31 rigs, or 5% below this time last year.

The Federal Reserve said on Friday it generated a smaller loss on its operations last year than in 2023 as its ongoing work to contain inflation kept its books in the red. The U.S. central bank said the total distribution of its comprehensive net loss last year stood at $77.5 billion versus $114.6 billion in 2023. The Fed last turned a profit in 2022.

Oil prices will likely slip this year, the director of North Dakota's state oil regulator predicted, amid uncertainty surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on neighboring Canada and Mexico. North Dakota is the third-largest oil producing state in the U.S. U.S. crude futures have been trading below $70 a barrel for the last three weeks, according to data from LSEG, with investor sentiment partly quashed by uncertainty around potential trade tariffs.

"Reducing the Federal Reserve's balance sheet is an important part of normalizing monetary policy implementation and reducing unneeded reserves in the banking system," Waller said in a statement explaining his dissent on the balance sheet decision included in the policy statement issued by the central bank on Wednesday. "There is no evidence from money market indicators or my outreach conversations that the banking system is getting close to an ample level of reserves," Waller said.