Oil is falling in early morning trade as an unexpected rise in U.S. weekly jobless claims Thursday has renewed concerns about the strength of recovery in the world's largest economy. Gold is falling slightly as well, but is seen by many traders to be trending higher in the longer-term as global equity prices continue to slip amid worries about global risks. At 0750 ET, Brent crude is down 1.2% at $74.39 a barrel, while light sweet crude is down 1.4% at $73.36 a barrel, and natural gas is down 1.0% at $4.13 a million British thermal units. Gold is 0.3% weaker at $1,231.30 an ounce, while silver is down 0.8% at $18.24 an ounce, and copper is down 1.7% at $3.28 a pound. State-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) has made a $2.9 billion hostile bid for Britain's Dana Petroleum plc (DNX). The Korean group has said it will spend about $6 billion on acquisitions and projects this year and double output by 2012. Malaysia's state-owned Petronas (PETR) and Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production (PTTE) shut down the Muda-Jengka gas field in their joint development area due to a heat exchanger problem, according to Reuters. Danish oil group AP Moller-Maersk (MAERSKB) is looking at BP plc's ( BP ) assets that may be for sale after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. In the mining sector, Aquarius Platinum Ltd (AQP) will pay about $12 million to settle a five-year contract dispute with Moolman Mining, a unit of Aveng Ltd's ( AEG ) engineering division. Aquarius had canceled an open-cast mining contract with Moolman in 2005 as it said there was a "misrepresentation" in the foreign exchange component of the agreement. Aquarius had since withdrew a claim for damages while retaining a claim for costs. Moolman had filed four counterclaims which were withdrawn in June.

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