Oil prices hovered near $88 a barrel Friday in Asia, with losses tempered by hopes of strong growth in demand for crude and Europe’s progress in containing its debt crisis.

Benchmark oil for January delivery was down 35 cents to $87.60 a barrel at late afternoon Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.25 to settle at $88 a barrel on Thursday, just shy of the 2010 high of $88.29.

Signs the U.S. economy is gaining strength have spurred a rally on Wall Street this week, and that in turn drove oil prices up. U.S. manufacturing activity, retail sales and the housing market all improved. And while more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the average over the past month fell to a two-year low.

Strong manufacturing data from China, a major crude importer, also lifted sentiment and turned attention away from European debt problems to the underlying strength of global oil demand, Barclays Capital said in a report.