BLBG: Oil Rebounds on Report U.S. Employers Add More Jobs Than Forecast in July
Oil pared losses in New York after a report showed the U.S. created more jobs than forecast in July.
Payrolls rose by 117,000 workers in July, Labor Department data showed. The median estimate in Bloomberg News survey called for a July gain of 85,000 workers. The U.S. is the world’s biggest consumer of crude oil.
Crude for September delivery was at $86.53 a barrel, down 10 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 1:45 p.m. London time. The contract traded at as much as $88.32 a barrel after the report.
“With the oil rally petering out so quickly after the figures it suggests we’re going to continue the down trend,” said Alexander Ridgers, London-based head of commodities at CMC Markets, which handles about $180 million a day in U.S. crude contracts.
Oil flows will resume through an Iranian pipeline in a “few hours” after an explosion today halted operations, the state-run Mehr news service said, without saying how the information was obtained.
The pipeline, which carries crude to plants in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz from Qalat Naar, suffered an explosion and fire, the news service said. Ahvaz, in Khuzestan province, is near the border with Iraq. The cause of the blast wasn’t known, Mehr said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rachel Graham in Belfast rgraham13@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
