U.S. crude prices edged up on Friday after dropping below $50 per barrel for the first time since December in the previous session, pressured by concerns that a global supply glut is proving stubbornly persistent. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was up 23 cents at $49.51 a barrel at 0027 GMT. Brent crude was yet to trade. On Thursday, it settled down 92 cents, or 1.7 percent, at $52.19 a barrel, after slumping 5 percent the day before in its biggest percentage decline in a year. 

The U.S. contract fell below $50 on Thursday for the first since mid-December, when OPEC producers and a group of other countries including Russia agreed on a cut in output to end two years of declining prices.

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