Energy shares such as BHP Billiton and Inpex Corp. were dragged down in the resource sector in Asia Thursday after a steep decline in crude-oil prices and job losses in the U.S. added to fears about worsening economic conditions. February crude-oil prices tumbled $5.95, or 12.2% to end at $42.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange overnight for the biggest one-day percentage drop in more than seven years, setting the stage for resource-sector losses. The decline came after data showed U.S. stockpiles rose a higher-than-expected 6.7 million barrels from a week earlier to 325.4 million barrels. See full story. In electronic trading, the front-month contract wavered and was recently up 21 cents at $42.84, after dropping as low as $42.24 a barrel. But the modest recovery did little to support energy shares after their recent ascent. BHP shrank 6.1% and Woodside Petroleum ) skidded 6.2% in Sydney, while Cnooc lost 5.2% in early Hong Kong trading. In Tokyo, shares of Inpex Corp. dropped even further, and were down 7.4% at mid-day. Energy-trading firms also declined, with Marubeni Corp. losing 4% and Mitsubishi Corp. shedding 4.6%. Also weighing on energy shares was a concern about rising U.S. job losses after the ADP employment index showed private-sector firms shed 693,000 jobs in December, a number far higher than expected. See full story. Shares of mining giant Rio Tinto slid 5.4% in Sydney recently, while gold miner Zijin Mining Group Co. lost 4.6% in Hong Kong. Other regional resource-sector stocks declined as well, after LME three-month copper shed 2.5% and nickel slumped 7.2%. February gold futures also slid below the $850 an ounce level on Nymex overnight, finishing $24.30 down at $841.70 an ounce. The contract recently gained $4.80 to $846.5 an ounce in electronic trading.

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