Friday, July 2, 2010

Oil dips after U.S. employment data

Oil dips after U.S. employment data

A taxi driver re-fuels his taxi at a Shell petrol station in  London March 16, 2010. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

A taxi driver re-fuels his taxi at a Shell petrol station in London March 16, 2010.

LONDON

LONDON (Reuters) - Crude oil futures dipped on Friday, reversing gains made after the market interpreted U.S. employment data as slightly more positive for economic growth than expected.

The U.S. Labor Department said non-farm payrolls dropped 125,000, the largest decline since October. But the unemployment rate in the world's top economy and energy consumer fell to 9.5 percent, the lowest level since July.

By 1402 GMT, U.S. crude oil futures was down 32 cents to $72.63 a barrel. Prices briefly turned positive immediately after the jobs data, then slipped by more than $1 to $71.70.

ICE Brent crude oil futures were 26 cents down at $72.04.

Financial markets had expected employment to fall 110,000 last month, with the jobless rate edging up to 9.8 percent from 9.7 percent in May. "The jobs numbers were pretty much factored in," Olivier Jakob with PetromatrixJakob said. "But that is not enough to turn the market around."

Prompt U.S. crude had fallen every day this week and is on course for a slide of more than 7 percent on the week, its biggest weekly drop in percentage terms since early May, when the European debt crisis hit markets and prompted a 13 percent drop.

The dollar fell against the euro on concerns about the U.S. economy, but Wall Street opened slightly higher in a mixed reaction to the employment data.

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